This could be an example of an email script:

  “Hi Carey, I am just enquiring on the property that you have advertised on your website in Albany Road. I am wondering what the price is and also how long the property has been on the market”

 Response:  “Hi John, thank you for your enquiry on the property in Albany Road.  The price is by negotiation and the owners have indicated that they are willing to meet the market and are considering all offers.   What price range are you looking in?  The property has been on the market for 3 weeks and there is an open home this Saturday between 12:00 and 1:00pm.  Our agency is one of the largest in the Auckland Western Suburbs and we have new properties coming on every day.  Read the rest of this entry »

Email traffic continues to increase in days gone past.  The written format was usually confined to written memos and letters.  You can imagine if that translated today that you would probably receive between 20 and for some people, hundreds of communications each day.  For those in sales the Internet is playing an increasingly important role for generating enquiry and it is as important, if not more important, than a telephone call. 

The rules of communication usually see email enquiry come in asking questions, these are usually specific on the piece of content the Read the rest of this entry »

Chase and Deliver

A small line crossed and I am pleased after the launch night a month ago we have managed to gain interest to be able sell 490 copies of Deliver to date.

The exciting news is that last night we received our 1000 retail copies. Yes it is different (have to admit  a tad better) to the digital run but those with the digital book can take heart the cost of those is twice as much.

I was advised today by Martin Taylor from Addenda Distrubution that they have pre sold a further 400 copies of Deliver into book stores. These should be available mid May.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Deliver and purchased a copy. It is a great thrill to hear people’s comments on the book.

Signed copies of the retail edition of Deliver are now available at www.careysmith.com and www.trademe.co.nz. If you wish you can also email your details to marketing@careysmith.com

There are several classes of contact in our day to day lives and this has changed over the last number of years.  Email traffic has increased, phone contact has decreased and face to face rates have also decreased – Why is this?

The ability for people to communicate on email is based around the fact that they know that they can send the message and communicate in real time and similar to other forms of communication particularly in sales, email is used to ask questions.  When we receive sales enquiries via email the sender requires a response.  Our objective however is potentially different to that of the sender, our objective should be to get a face to face appointment – this clashes with the objective of the sender who would like to have their question answered – Read the rest of this entry »

Is leadership as important in a small business as it is a big business?

The leader of a small business is likely to have a deep involvement in the operational aspects of the business.  For want of a better term, the leader of a small business is the ‘jack of all trades’.  In a larger organisation leadership has a different level of depth and also is more focused towards strategic leadership than operational leadership.  Where does the balance lie? 

In a small business the leader’s energy and attitude reverberate instantly through the business and this has a direct correlation with the day-to-day results.  As a leader of  a small business you are living in a goldfish bowl – everything is magnified, everyone is looking at you but it is unlikely that you are going to be judged directly given that you have no equal or peer within your environment.  The structure will be flatter and there is a danger of overlapping with employed people because we generally are attracted to employing similar people to ourselves.

In a larger organisation there is different depths of experience, feedback and performance.  Generally a team who works with a leader will be able to offer the leader areas of knowledge in specific fields that they may not have.  It has the potential to shelter the leader so they may make better decisions regarding the direction of the business. 

The commonality between small business and big business is that having the right team around you remains critical.  The ability of the leader to develop trust, to harness talents and to give opportunity is applicable to all areas of leadership.  It remains a challenge for the leader of a smaller business to embrace deficiencies and to understand that we all have areas that we are not knowledgeable on and therefore being able to seek outside advice which is the grey area between small business and bigger business.

Leadership for a small business owner is more critical than ever in today’s environment.  Understanding leadership will ultimately attract talent, grow your business and give it the potential to become a market leader.