Referrals are welcome

Repeat customers and referrals are at the heart of a healthy business operation. When was the last time you recommended a restaurant to a friend? Maybe you were happy with a car wash and told a neighbor, who now frequents the same place. When someone compliments your suit, shoes or coat, you might even tell them where you bought those items, unprompted. So much business is spread by word of mouth.

Owners of businesses can’t be in all the right networking places at the right time, but building up referral sources is imperative for a professional service firm.

Recently my accountant passed away. Unfortunately, no provision had been made to complete my taxes. It was time to go looking for another accountant. Being a small business, I didn’t need a powerhouse accounting firm but I did need someone local who could get the taxes done on time. An added value would be someone who could provide financial expertise to help my business thrive.

I decided to call on an accountant who is a friend of the family. I was disappointed to learn that she wasn’t available to do my taxes. I asked her if she knew of anyone else. She told me about a CPA in Livonia, who shares an office with two others and is very competent. In fact, my source said that she often refers prospective clients to this CPA when her clientele gets too full. Her vote of confidence was reassuring. It was also a big relief because I didn’t have to keep looking. My new CPA is gaining a new customer without even having to knock on my door or make a cold call. Given that scenario, you see how important a good referral can be.

That’s why we welcome your referrals. My team at Cezat Creative Resources and I can manage your print or web project from concept to completion. We are to the print/web/presentation process what an event planner is to a wedding, conference or fundraising event.  We make your job easier by handling all the details and ensuring that deadlines are met and budgets are adhered to.

Referrals can take small business to new places. Photo by Liz Cezat.

We offer complete project management – writing, design, photography, printing/mailing, and posting online – for timely communication. Our newsletters, brochures, annual reports, websites and presentations are designed to keep your audiences informed, inspired and loyal to your organization/firm. I also offer social media – posting and blog content.

We can help you:

• sell professional services

• raise funds for a nonprofit organization

• boost loyalty from alumni and/or association members

• prepare for a capital campaign

• engage your key supporters.

If you are pleased with the services that you have received from Cezat Creative Resources, please tell your associates about us when they go looking for a small yet smart business to take on an important project that involves marketing, fundraising or B2B sales.

If you have questions, comments or want to discuss a project, please contact Liz Cezat at 734.416.5915 or send an e-mail. Thank you for helping us get the word out.

Writing and flow can make your speech transformative

Good writing is the linchpin of a presentation. As a Toastmaster, I hear a lot of speeches. The good ones have a beginning, middle and end. The bad ones take the listeners along a path that leads to a fog – they don’t know where the speech is going.

Near hits are those that have a great opening, good solid points, descriptive examples and personal stories that connect, but at the point of wrapping up the speech – the speaker veers onto a tangent before ending it.

Why did the speaker throw in this extraneous element? When writing, your speech should have a  flow to it. Do the points you are making lead logically from one to another? Do your real-life examples support a point or are you just adding them for comic relief? Everything that goes into a presentation – facts, examples, humor and statistics – needs to support the message you want to impart.

A good speech is like a river, it takes the audience on a journey.
Photo by Liz Cezat; Virgin River, Zion National Park

When writing a speech, if it appears that you have too much stuff in the form of a double ending or content that doesn’t flow, you need to closely examine the extraneous elements. If an element is indeed a supporting point of the speech, put it where it belongs. Maybe it needs to go toward the front of your presentation or in the middle. It if doesn’t fit anywhere, cut it out. Think of great films and how many scenes are left on the cutting room floor.

Now, picture a river with a strong current. You want to take your audience in at one point (set the stage), and then have them travel with you along that river – learning and ideally being entertained as they go. At the end, put them on solid ground with new knowledge gained. Give your speech legs – take-away points the audience can either act on or reflect upon.

It’s true that the audience forgets much of what is said in a speech, but if you can create a good flow to your speech and have an ending that wraps up the most important points, the audience will be delighted not only with the presentation but with you as an expert.

Exceptional speeches stick with audiences for years because they’ve imparted new knowledge. Your words can motivate your audience or inspire them to change a behavior or viewpoint. With a bit more attention to content and flow, your speeches can be transformative.

If you need a professional speech writer, please contact me at info@cezatcreative.com

Presentations must take root to take effect

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While ideas made during a presentation might be soaring, like this
gorgeous artwork in Tacoma, Wash., a good speaker must also make them concrete.  Photo by Liz Cezat.

As executives and leaders, we are highly motivated to connect with others in our presentations. It excites us to speak in front of an audience of listeners who may be forever changed by what we tell them. We want to share what we know about a particular subject so that the audience can benefit from our knowledge, expertise and experience.

My presentation roster focuses on three subjects:

1.     How to write effective e-mails

2.     Marketing professional services

3.     Connect with key audiences through social media

My goal is for the salient points to take root and ultimately become a part of an individual’s work habits. Toward that end, it’s not enough to simply hear an idea expressed, the audience must also be shown how to activate it. I provide work sheets so the audience can incorporate new ideas discussed during the presentation into their process. To make it stick, I often provide concrete examples of how an action has yielded results. And we all want results, don’t we?

The strongest points of a presentation should be available on handouts and in slides for future reference. I also send follow-up e-mails to the audience to reinforce points made during the presentation. These e-mails can be spaced a week or two after the presentation to remind participants of the salient points. I remind them that I’m available via e-mail or phone as a resource if they have any questions about what they learned. The e-mails also serve as positive reinforcement to those who have already incorporated the new ideas into their workflow process.

Speakers are messengers of the moment. What we say strikes a chord based on the life experience of the listener and their openness to receiving that message. But too often, the message is fleeting. Heard but forgotten. To make that spark of a new idea take root, the reinforcement tools of handouts, work sheets, slides and e-mails take the lessons learned one step further – being deployed into a worker’s process.

When to hire a consultant ... hint: before the candy runs out.

Four clues that reveal when a company's workload is at the breaking point:

Clue #1: Your employees have a startled “deer in the headlights” look when you walk by.

Clue #2: A smattering of “urgent” sticky notes on your computer makes it hard to see the screen.

Clue #3: You are starting to dread Fridays almost as much as Mondays because important projects haven’t been accomplished.

Clue #4: Instead of a candy dish, your office has one filled with aspirin and antacids.

These clues often point to the need for a consultant to keep the work flow manageable and your company's momentum strong. Now let’s delve into some definitive guidelines about when to outsource communication and marketing projects.

• Do you have self-contained projects that aren’t getting done on time?

• Do you produce a quarterly newsletter that only gets out twice a year? (Easy solutions: Outsource every other issue or the entire production, or get assistance with the articles or layout.)

• Did you plan to produce an e-newsletter for customers, prospects or donors, only to find your original content ideas are looking like yesterday’s news and you still haven’t put out an issue?

• Do you have a major presentation coming up? You know you can easily do a portion of the presentation but would really like a seasoned pro to conduct the interviews, obtain new information and package it in a way that informs and inspires the audience to take action. (We excel at creating content for scripts; graphics for presentations; and handouts that reinforce action items. Plus, If we produce your presentation, we can videotape it for YouTube or your company intranet.)

• Fear or uncertainty keeps you from ramping up your presence in social media. (Did you know that YouTube, Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook and other sites as well as blogs rank high in search engines? It’s a powerful way to brand your firm, boost your SEO and make new connections.)

• If you are a professional group without a marketing director, it’s hard for the principals to do all the rainmaking and branding for the firm. While your firm may be super at retaining clients, do you truly have the extra time and marketing expertise that it takes to keep a perpetual pipeline of new business?

If you are unsure what can or should be outsourced, we’re only a phone call or a click away. When contracted for a project, you can expect timely follow-up, excellence in communication materials, cost-effective rates, integrity and adherence to your deadline. And, once again, your staff will be able to eat the candy in your office dish.

Image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Time for a grammar tune-up?

I’m dismayed at the number of blogs, news articles and reviews that contain bad grammar. It’s not rocket science, yet many educated people (yes, even those with Master’s degrees and PhDs) often get tangled up in the proper use of the English language. Here is a quick primer:

Their (refers to people) vs. there (refers to a place)

They’re (contraction for “they are”) vs. there, which refers to a place (noted above)

It’s (means “it is”) vs. its,  a pronoun that shows possession (e.g.: its passage)
Proper usage: It’s cold outside. Let’s see if we can find its master. (referring to a dog’s owner)

Here’s a quick test to check if contractions are used correctly. Use the real words to see if the sentence still makes sense. For example, in the above sentence, it doesn’t make sense to say, “it’s master,” which translates to “it is master.”

To clarify, a contraction substitutes an apostrophe (‘) for part of the word. Why? Perhaps to save space. Maybe it was an early adaptation of texting – condensing two words into one.

Moving on then…

To (expressing motion or direction toward a point, person, place) vs. too (means excessive: too many, too much). Improper usage: “I had to much to eat.” (first “to” should be “too”; second “to” is correct)

When you see a red or green squiggly line under copy, something is wrong. Do a spell-check in Word or cut and paste the word into Dictionary.com to verify the spelling and/or usage.

Even Hollywood knows the importance of good communication. You may recall a classic line from the cops and robbers’ movie “Heat” set in L.A. in the ‘90s. Police lieutenant Vincent Hanna (played by Al Pacino) was a superb communicator. Early on, he was arguing with his wife Justine, played by the amazing Diane Venora, over how much he worked.*

He intoned, “I say what I mean and do what I say.”

Diane did not exactly melt at the statement but she took notice. Vincent's credibility was ratcheted up among viewers, who could see that he was a man of his word. I know this line wasn’t original to Mr. Pacino but he gets credit for making it stick. He did a great service to English teachers and consultants who work tirelessly to communicate well and help others do so.

If your associates or employees need more in-depth help than this blog can provide, contact me about conducting an on-site seminar. I will discuss common mistakes made in writing; how to shorten and clarify e-mails; the need to proof and reread copy (reports, articles, e-mails) before submitting; and how to become a better communicator through effective writing. Check it out here: http://www.cezatcreative.com/expertise.html (Click on the PDF “presentations” attachment at the bottom of the Expertise page.)

I much prefer writing to editing, but need to share my pet peeves in the hope that these mistakes will never occur again!

Please report back on your success of changing bad grammar as well as glaring errors that you’ve seen. Measurement is a critical component of success.

*This is how I remembered it, without re-watching the movie.

Image: Maggie Smith / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to get started on a marketing project

Following my presentation on “Marketing and Sales Team up for Mediation Business Success,” I conducted a workshop. In one activity, I asked participants (approx. 6 at a table) with 5 tables to take a marketing tactic (brochure, newsletter, website, direct mail piece, and event) and determine these five things:

1. who has the information to do this project (if more than one person or source, list their general title or role. It could also be Internet, but specify where you would look).

2. Who will write it? Who will design it? If it’s a seminar, who will sponsor it?

3. How much time will it take to do this tactic?

4. What will it cost?

5. Who is your audience?

6. How will you get the mailing list together?

7. Who will you partner with or seek advice from to complete this project?

The groups enthusiastically pooled their efforts. The object wasn’t so much to get the job done before they left the conference, but to see that teamwork is essential in tackling major tasks. Also, participants had a reality check on the resources needed, advance timing and budget required to bring marketing projects to fruition.