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A Great Marketing Model – Utilizing the Power of OPM
Staying ahead of the marketing curve seems to be a never-ending quest. Marketing doesn’t have to be as complex as some people make it out to be. It’s simply a matter of understanding who you are marketing to – your ideal customers – and then coming up ...

How Will Your Visitors Remember You And Your Business? Brand Yourself From The Crowd...
Big and Yellow 'M' reminds you McDonalds... 'DELL' with oblique E reminds you famous 'Dell' computers... No matter somebody is a beginner or a well established business person, they need to make their products familiar to the people. With so many ...

Tips for Launching Your Own Business
This November marks my two-year anniversary of starting my own human resources consulting business. As I look back on the years, I am amazed at what I accomplished and learned. If you are thinking about starting a business, read on! I always dreamed ...


Google
Over Deliver - The Key to Customer Satisfaction
 
Client satisfaction starts with meeting or beating the contractual obligations of the relationship. There are also some intangibles that can help you to over deliver to a client.

Meetings

In most organizations it’s easy to deliver additional value around meetings, because statistically, most companies run meetings poorly. Capture important notes during your meetings and then deliver your neatly typed notes consistently with your client’s format. Not only will it allow you to capture the main ideas and benefit of important discussions, but it will almost always be appreciated by your client’s team members. Send this as soon after the meeting as possible.

Proactively help to define the agendas and outcomes for each meeting. Help keep things on track and try to meaningfully contribute towards these goals. Become highly proficient at running successful meetings.

If there are action items for other team members that are critical to your projects success, tactfully contact the team member and offer your help if it makes sense. Keeping the project on track internally helps you accomplish your goals as a consultant and you’ll be viewed favorably as a team player.

Reports

Delivering quality reports during your client engagement will enhance your image as a consultant because they’re so visible to the internal team members. In your earliest meeting possible get together with the client and define parameters for the report format and content. Every client has different needs so don’t assume that your template doesn’t need to change. Information important to one client is not interesting to another. Define up front what works and then deliver it.

As with the rest of your


communications, a picture is worth a thousand words. You or your staff should become proficient at producing flow charts, Gantt charts, performance charts and architectural diagrams. Drawings in your report that communicate an abundance of information make it easy to use.

Perfect the art of the executive summary. For busy executives in the client organization, sometimes they’ll only want a one page summary. Make sure it communicates the key issues of the report. If they want more information, they’ll drill down.

Accessibility

Make it easy to contact you around the clock using email, phone, or mobile. The more you’re as accessible as internal team members the more you will be regarded as one. Have backup plans when you know you’re not going to be available. Proactively contact your clients letting them know if there will be a period of time they won’t be able to get a hold of you and give them some alternative options.

Profit Engineering

Our company focuses on profit engineered technology, that is, how we maximize the ROI on the technology we deploy. We pay attention to the business process, the costs of the process and try to achieve the best solution possible that will impact the bottom line for our client. And we’re also pretty good at communicating this to the client so they can appreciate our responsible efforts.





Bryan Brandenburg has published 5 books as well as a number of articles both in print and on the internet. He has published almost 30 software programs both for consumers and business. More information can be found at www.vmmg.net.

b.brandenburg@vmmg.net


News



GigaOM

Apple: US e-book lawsuit 'fundamentally flawed'
Reuters
In a filing in US District Court in Manhattan late Tuesday, Apple said it has not conspired with anyone or fixed prices for e-books in an effort to thwart Amazon.com Inc's dominance of that fast-growing market. The Justice Department accused Apple in ...
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Slow economy prompts wave of liberal books
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NEW YORK — With a Democrat in the White House, a wave of books is coming out this year lamenting the slow economy and calling for substantial change. And those books are by liberals. "It's the story of the moment right now," says Patricia Bostelman, ...

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The Hindu

Scrutiny of Reebok India's books ordered
The Hindu
The Corporate Affairs Ministry, on Wednesday, ordered a scrutiny of the books of accounts of sportswear maker Reebok's Indian arm over complaints of an alleged Rs.870-crore fraud. “We have ordered an enquiry under Sec. 234 of the Companies Act, ...
Reebok books former MD, COO on charges of financial irregularitiesDaily News & Analysis
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McEntee: Books for young readers can be gritty, but rarely damaging
Salt Lake Tribune
By Peg McEntee Evidently, swearing in books for adolescents is on the rise, particularly among characters who are rich, attractive and popular. That's the conclusion of a Brigham Young University professor who scoured the content of 40 best-sellers and ...

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Huntington's exhibit hall for books to get $2.5-million makeover
Los Angeles Times
By Mike Boehm A change is in store for the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens' main display of its rare books, manuscripts, drawings, photography and other literary and historical holdings -- including a Gutenberg Bible from the ...