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As I sat with my morning coffee complaining about the snow I realized, snow and bad sale pitches have a lot in common, here are my thoughts:

The flurries: Much like any sales pitch it sounds good in the beginning, the potential customer likes to see the passion you show for the product/service you are selling and is willing to give you time and attention, much like the beginning of a snow storm.

The Snowball fights: As time goes by, you even decide to try out the product, much like going out for a snowball fight.

The Clean up: You like the product to the point you work on building a good relationship with the salesman, like putting in an effort to plow the driveway or roads.

The residual snow: Then, like a bad snow storm, the salesperson just doesn’t know when to back off, it keeps calling, emailing and stalking you to force you into making a decision.

The icy melt: Like a pile of three day old snow, the product/service doesn’t appeal you anymore and the mere sight of it irritates you.

Round 2 of Snowmageddon: Just when you think you have ditched the salesman, like the blizzard of 2010, you are hit with the sales pitch all over again.

So what has the blizzard of 2010 taught me?

• Believe in your product/service and others will believe in it too

• Sell a solution not a product/service

• Tailor each and every pitch to the client, do not have a set cookie cutter method

• Give people space to evaluate your product/service, if it’s good, they will come

• Send gentle reminders

• If you make a sale, go out and celebrate

• If it doesn’t work, retreat graciously

• Stay in touch to remind the potential clients you are still here as a prospect

• Move on to the next sales pitch

Good Luck with the snow storm and getting through your next sales/negotiation!

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1.  Create word processing documents, we used it to write proposals and develop website manuals.

2.  Share documents with other people on the same project, this was helpful when people involved on a project were not in the same physical location.

3.  Created a document that could be edited by multiple people simultaneously for collaboration purposes.  This was very important for us when we were trying to meet a deadline.

4.  Divide documents into different folders/labels/projects-always nice to be organized!

5.  Share folders with selected people, helpful to make sure there is a consistent way of sorting and organizing documents.  You could have folders project based or sorted in what works for your organization.

6.  Create forms to collect information from clients- For projects that required specific information, we would create simple forms and use them to gather the information we wanted.  Made us look professional and helped us gather the information we needed.

7.  Create forms for feedback after completion of projects-Always nice to get feed back in a professional way.

8.  Email form or embed form in blog or website for quick responses-love this option!

9.  Create presentations with Google presentation tools.  Helpful if you don’t have MS Powerpoint.

10.  Create spreadsheets using Google Spreadsheets-helped us with managing time spent on each project and amount of money owed by each client!

These are some of the ways we used google docs to help with our business.  Do you have any stories to share?  Tell us under comments or tweet them to me at @bizincubation !

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For a complete list of tools and the complete article by Jelmer de Jong, click here.

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The key to social networking is to do the following:

1. Listen to conversations: For social media newbies, the best strategy is to listen, observe and follow conversations. Understand the Lingo, understand the concept that not all social media is created equally.  Each social media tool has it’s own lingo and will benefit your business in its own unique way.
2. Learn from others: As an observer of social media, you are not only trying to learn the lingo and how it works but your goal should be to learn from the experts-industry related or social media gurus
3. Be innovative and creative: Your posts,  links you share,  thoughts and ideas should be innovative.  Create excitement and unleash the creative monster within you and let it be free
4. Create a community: Create a community of mentors, experts, clients, suppliers, people you randomly like and even competitors!  Just the way you need a support system in life, you need to create a support system in your online community as well.
5. Be helpful: This is probably the most simple yet most overlooked method of engaging in social media.  People love those who are helpful and support them.  If someone posts a poll, take a few minutes to answer it, if someone asks a questions, take out time to answer them.  You need to be able and willing to give if you want to receive.
6. Be patient: One of the things that early social media adopters forget is that they have to be patient.  If you are comitted to your brand and social media mission, then be patient.
7. Be nice: No one likes a meanie.  Being nice on Social media entails taking criticism in a stride, helping out others, being polite and curtious.
8. Be an expert: Look into your innerself and see what you are good at, are you good at being a multi tasker, are you good at finding online deals?  Are you good at quoting people, see what you know and talk about that.
9. Be honest: Noone likes a phony, be honest with others if you want them to be honest with you.  If someone asks you a questions, be honest in your opinion.  People can generally spot someone who is not being honest.
10. Add a personal touch: Social media is much like a face to face networking event,  you want to be memorable, you want people to know you, well if you add that personal touch they will appreciate it more.  The whole point of social media is to add a human touch to your company’s brand name.
11. A picture is worth a thousand words: People love pictures, videos, slides and animations.  Leverage youtube, slideshare, twitpic, facebook and all the wonderful resources out there to host your multi media and share it with your online communities.  Nothing gets more clicks and creates a stir like putting a link to an intriguing picture, video slideshow or animation.
12. keep it short, keep it simple- People want it short n simple.
13. Make it easy- Don’t ask people to do complicated things, don’t abbreviate and make people guess what your message it.  Keep it simple, keep it straightforward
14. Do not sign up for every social media tool out there: Study the existing tools and choose which one you are most comfrtable with and will help you achieve your goal.
15. Cross Promote: If you are signed up on multiple social media sites, cross promote each site and use your website to promote your social media sites.
16. Never leave behind an incomplete profile: Often times people will get an invitation, they start a profile and just leave it-HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL and a huge mistake.  Always complete the profile and keep it updated.  Don’t think you will be using it?  Delete the incomplete profile.
17. Google/You tube/ Help- make them your best friend: Don’t understand how to use a social network tool?  Need help with a problem-google it!  You are probably not the first one to face that problem!  There are blogs, videos, websites dedicated to helping out people. In addition to the user manuals and help sections on the social media sites.
18. Ask others: Can’t find what you are looking for online, ask people.  People on social media sites love to talk and help people out.  No harm in reaching out to them!
19. Enjoy every second  of it: Socia Media is a great way to have fun, you can share opinions, educate, learn and make great connections.  Take out time on a daily basis to maintain and grow your social media efforts.
20. Hire a pro: Don’t think you can take out the committment for your social media campaingn/efforts?  Hire someone to do it for you!  Check our services to learn more !

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