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Your Employees Are Present, but Are They Really There? The Problem of Presenteeism

There’s nothing more frustrating than being down a few team members, right? When employees are absent, it seems like you just can’t get as much done, and you’re left scrambling to fill the void. But is absenteeism really the worst thing for your business’ productivity and bottom line? Turns out, it might not be. In fact, the problem of “presenteeism,” or being at work but not being really all there, might be a much bigger problem. So what is presenteeism, and is there a way to combat it and get your employees and your business back on track?

What Is Presenteeism?

Let’s start by taking a look at what we mean when we use the words “absent,” “absenteeism,” and “presenteeism.” silhouette of a person with a question mark next to the head

Absent: This simply means that an employee hasn’t come to work for an important reason, like illness, family issues, vacation, or jury duty. There shouldn’t be any problem with taking days off if needed; this time is extremely necessary for employee productivity.
Absenteeism – Taking days off is one thing, but it becomes absenteeism if it is habitual. If this is happening, you’ll need to look at the cause and try to address it: something like burnout, harassment, mental health issues, or a difficult situation at home could be causing the problem. In general, 1.5% is a very good rate for absenteeism; a higher rate can indicate an issue.
Presenteeism – Some employees will take time off when needed, and others won’t, which can lead to presenteeism, or situations when employees come to work but are unproductive on the job or not working at their full capacity. This can be caused by many things, including:
- Illness/mental illness/chronic diseases (this is generally agreed upon to be the most common, and so most problematic, cause of presenteeism)
- Burnout
- Harassment
- Demotivation
- Problems within a team/conflicts
- Time management issues
- Stress

Coming to work and “powering through” under these conditions doesn’t do anyone any favors: your employee will suffer, and so will your business. But what price is your business paying for this phenomenon?

How Big of a Problem Is Presenteeism?

Now that we’ve laid out what presenteeism actually means, let’s look at its devastating effect on productivity, and your bottom line. Consider this:

According to a GCC Insights report by Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) from 2016, while employees were absent from work an average of 4 days per year each, they confessed to being unproductive on the job for 57.5 days each, or almost 3 working months.
Absent workers cost employers around $150 billion per year, but those who come to work but are not fully present around $1,500 billion per year in the US, based on Bureau of Labor (BLS) data
The Journal of the American Medical Association has reported that depression sets U.S. employers back some $35 billion a year in reduced performance at work, and that pain conditions such as arthritis, headaches, and back problems cost nearly $47 billion. Not only that, but the researchers also found that the on-the-job productivity loss resulting from depression and pain was roughly three times greater than the absence-related productivity loss attributed to these conditions.
When it comes to healthcare costs for employees, studies have shown that only around 30% is attributed to direct medical care and pharmaceutical costs, usually in the form of premiums an employer pays to an insurer. Another 9% is associated with short- and long-term disability and worker’s compensation. Just 6% is the result of absenteeism. The overwhelming majority of the cost – a whopping 60% – is attributed to health-related lost productivity caused by presenteeism. That means presenteeism costs employers two to three times more than direct medical care.
According to one study, 69% of respondents reported going to work while sick at least once in the past year. Workers who did go to work while sick estimated that their productivity was reduced by 23%.

These numbers should worry you, and should make you wonder what exactly is going on. Why are employees at work, but not all there?

What’s Happening?

So what’s going on here? Being absent is clearly not a problem in our workplaces. After all, according to the BLS, the 2018 US annual average absence rate is 2.9%, and some studies show that the median worker takes only one absence day per year, while workers in the 90th percentile take 7 absences per year. But this might be part of the problem: workers are not taking enough time off. Why are they showing up, and not working to their potential? It could be down to multiple reasons, including:

Little to no paid sick days being offered to them
Job insecurity
Understaffing
Unrealistic expectations from their employer
Time pressure
Harassment for taking a sick leave
Huge workload

Take a good look at the issues above, and consider if your employees might be feeling pressure to come to work, even if they’re not at their best, or if they’re forgoing things that are necessary to their mental health and work/life balance, like taking vacations. As we think about that, let’s now take a look at what can be done to help combat presenteeism.

What Can You Do?

Presenteeism can obviously be harder to spot than absenteeism: you know when someone doesn’t show up for work, but you often can’t tell when or how much something going on under the surface, like mental or physical illness or stress, is hindering someone’s performance. But there are things you can do to try to combat presenteeism, and both make life better for your employees and do a favor for your business’ finances.

Recognize the problem

Now you know that presenteeism could be a problem in your workplace, so it’s time to be on the lookout for it. While it can be hard to spot, as we pointed out, it doesn’t have to be. According to Dr. David Batman, GCC’s chief medical officer, and a registered consultant specialist in occupational health with expertise in psychological health at work, employers need to be more tuned into the well-being of their employees:

“I preach a simple message – pay attention if you notice something has changed. Employees at all levels of a business may be stressed, distracted, and struggling to perform at work. As a result, they may be fatigued and this can affect their concentration. So if employees’ engagement with their job decreases or they seem unconcerned about outcomes, you may have a problem – and you will need to act.”

Be clear that it’s ok to take time off

We need to change the conversation, and start prioritizing both under-performance issues and employee wel-lbeing over absenteeism. In the past, it was believed that productivity was connected to attendance, and still today, visibility is related to productivity and efficiency, so employees feel like they need to prove themselves just by being there.

But as Dr. Batman points out, “We need to stop talking about how many sick days people are taking and focus our energy on what they’re doing when they’re actually at work.” And that means giving them the time they need to recover, and doing the following: an empty office

Don’t have a disciplinary policy related to absenteeism. This will only encourage employees to work when they’re not up to it.
Set a good example, and take time off when you need it.
If you notice someone is unwell, or if they are not themselves, send them home or even let them work from home for a while if that’s best.
Do your absolute best to offer adequate paid time off and/or sick leave.
Consider offering a workplace wellness program.
Make sure you have enough staff to cover an employee if they can’t be at work, otherwise they might feel pressured to always be there.
Reduce the stigma around mental health issues in your workplace, and make clear that you prioritize their mental well-being by offering them time off and coverage for mental health treatments.

Presenteeism is not about workers pretending to be sick to get out of work, or fooling around on the job and not getting things done, it’s a problem in our culture that values attendance over wellbeing. Hey, no one likes working when they’re sick, stressed, or overwhelmed, right? And the numbers prove that not only do people not like it, but it’s bad for their productivity, and for your bottom line. So it’s time to focus on creating a workplace that’s healthy for employees’ bodies and minds, so you can achieve your goals and keep your employees happy and motivated.

Are You All Thumbs? How to Grow Your Business with Text Messaging

What are some of the sounds that always get your attention? If you’re like most people these days, one sound that you probably won’t ignore is the sound of a text message notification. And with almost 4 billion texts being sent around the world every day, there are a whole lot of people checking their phones when they hear that sound! So what does all this have to do with your business? Well, there are ways you can use the popularity of text messaging to your advantage, and grow your business with the power of SMS.

What Makes Text Messaging So Powerful?

Before we get into how to use text messaging to grow your business, let’s take a look at exactly why text messaging can be such a powerful tool for your business. The numbers surrounding text messaging are pretty astounding, and might make you wonder why you haven’t tapped into this area of communication and marketing before. Just check this out:

81% of the US population (or over 250 million people) use text messaging.
Incredibly, according to a study by Singlepoint, texts have a 99% open rate (as opposed to emails, which have an open rate of anywhere from only 10-30%). And Forbes reported that 95% of texts are read within three minutes.
A study by Velocify reports that 45% of text messages receive a response, compared to 6% of emails.
Only 17% of cell phone users say that getting texts from businesses they frequent is obtrusive.
A Pew study found that 33% of American adults prefer texts to all other forms of communication, regardless of who is sending that text or what the message is about.
Consumers actually prefer certain business interactions to be handled by text, such as checking order status (38%), scheduling or changing an appointment (32%), or confirming reservations (31%).

So it’s clear that people (otherwise known as your customers!) are definitely on board with text messaging coming from businesses. In fact, to add to the stats above, 78% of consumers polled wished they could text a business, but most businesses don’t have this option available. According to Twilio, only 48% of businesses are equipped to handle messaging. What does that mean for you? Adopting text messaging could mean a giant leg up on your competition. Not only because you’ll be doing something that other businesses aren’t, but also because you’ll be reaching customers far more quickly than your competition. And remember, studies show that shoppers tend to choose the company that they can get in touch with first! Just look at these stats proving how fast text messaging is:

Sending and receiving a text is 10 times faster than placing a voice call.
It takes less than five seconds to read most text messages.
You can receive a response incredibly quickly, within 90 seconds on average. Email, on the other hand, takes 90 minutes on average.

These are all some pretty compelling statistics, so you might now be wondering how to harness the power of texting for your business. Let’s take a look at some strategies for using SMS to grow your business.

Text Messaging Marketing Strategies

Using text messaging internally at your business can be a great way of communicating with your team, saving you time and keeping everything running smoothly and efficiently, but it’s time to also start thinking about how to use text messaging to attract customers and keep them satisfied. Try the following easy and cost-effective texting tactics:

1. Texts for Customer Service Support

There are so many great things about text messaging, not least of which is that it is a form of two-way communication. That means you can set your business up to receive inquiries from customers, and then answer them at lightning speed. You can also allow customers to make and confirm appointments with you, so they never need to take extra time out of their busy schedules to call you and wait on hold, meaning you’ll both free up more of your time!

2. MMS Text Promotions

Who says you have to stick to simple SMS messages that only include a short sentence? That’s great for answering questions quickly and succinctly, but if you want to get people to sit up and take notice of a promotion you’re running, try using MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service. Using this type of texting will allow you to include photos, coupons, videos, and other engaging content, so you’re even more likely to get customers to click.

3. Text-to-Win Sweepstakes

Want to get more subscribers? Try offering a text-to-win sweepstakes with a tempting prize! Advertise your giveaway, asking customers to text a specific word to your number; they’ll be excited to sign up, and you’ll gain a whole bunch of new text subscribers.

4. Automated Text Campaigns

Do you like the ease of sending out automated emails and using drip email campaigns? You can do the same thing with text messaging, with a much higher click-through rate. As with email campaigns, you can set up text messages to go out at set times, like after they subscribe, after they make a purchase, or when you’re having a promotion. In all of these cases, you can also send out a personalized coupon code to keep them coming back for more.

5. Texts to Give Peace of Mind

No business wants to run the risk of data breaches, and all customers want to know that their information is protected. You can give your customers peace of mind (and add an extra layer of security to protect your business) by asking for customers’ phone numbers to send them a verification code via text to confirm a purchase. Everyone wins security-wise, and you’ll also be able to add more customers’ phone numbers to your list.

6. Texts to Get People in the Door

Businesses can use what’s known as “geofencing,” or a service that sends texts to customers based on their location. That means you’ll be able to send notices and coupons to your subscribers when they are close to your business, which means they’ll be more likely to stop in!

7. Texts to Get More Info

You don’t have to limit your text messaging to just promotions and ways to get customers into your business – you can also use them to better understand your customers. Send out text messages with quick and easy surveys and polls, and you’ll be much more likely to get a response, and get some valuable info to improve your business.

Rules to Remember

There are so many ways to use text messaging, and the numbers prove that it’s pretty likely that using SMS and MMS will be beneficial to your business. But there are a few things to remember that can help ensure the success of your texting campaign:

Always get each customer’s permission before you start sending business texts to them
Try to personalize your texts when you can – studies have shown that personalized messages are 202% more likely to convert
Respond to text messages from customers as quickly as possible, within an hour if possible – 82% of customers expect an immediate response to texts, after all!
Remember to speak your customers’ language, and avoid too much slang or too much jargon
Be consistent with your communication, but don’t bombard customers: for promotional texts, 3 a month is a good starting target

There are so many types of technology that can help level the playing field for small businesses these days, and text messaging can be a very powerful tool in your belt. This convenient, immediate, and cheap way of connecting with your customers can open up some seriously beneficial channels for engaging with your customers, and reaching them right where they already are: on their phones! The convenience, service, and enticing promotions that you’ll be able to offer will create a memorable experience for them, and grow your business so you can reach your goals!

Take Pride in Your Workplace: Have We Gotten Past LGBTQ Discrimination at Work?

It’s Pride Month! And this month, we’d like to do more than just post a picture of a Pride flag – not that there’s anything wrong with showing your support! We’re all for that, but we’d also like to take this opportunity to examine the state of things when it comes to LGBTQ individuals in the workplace in the 2020s. We know we’ve made significant progress, but what challenges are we still facing? And what more can we do to bring more equality into our workplaces? After all, that will benefit everyone in the long run!

How Far We’ve Come

There was a time when being out anywhere, in any job, could mean facing real problems, including unchallenged discrimination and termination. But we’ve made great legal strides in the last few decades, and there are now laws on the books that protect the rights of LGBTQ employees. These laws include:

Title VII: Federal law, supported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and now, once again, enforced by the Department of Justice. This law:

- - Says that discrimination or harassment based on sex stereotypes about how a man or woman should behave violates the law
  - The Supreme Court in 2020 concluded that it includes protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity

State laws:

- - 20 states (plus D.C.) prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
  - 2 states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation only
  - 11 states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity against public employees only

Local laws:

- 227 Cities, Towns, Counties, and Townships currently prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity

Only 6 states have no protections at the state or local level (Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee)

In addition, companies are getting better at making their own voluntary policies that help to foster an inclusive workplace and stamp out discrimination. For example, in 1999 72% of Fortune 500 companies included sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies, and only a couple of them included gender identity. Today, 89% of such companies include sexual orientation, and 66% prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Many federal contractors have also enacted policies on LGBT workplace equality: of the largest 50 federal contractors, 86% prohibit sexual orientation discrimination and 61% prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.

And, according to the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, in 2015 a record number of 366 businesses achieved a top rating of 100%, while in its initial year in the early 2000s, only 13 businesses achieved the highest rating. To achieve a 100% rating, the company must have, among other requirements, an equal employment opportunity policy including sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in place, equivalent spousal and partner benefits, accompanied by transgender-inclusive health insurance coverage, and provide competency training and have either an employee group or a diversity council.

All of this means that, on the federal, state, local, AND private sector levels, things are improving when it comes to combatting discrimination in the workplace. But how are things in practice?

What Challenges Do LGBTQ Employees Face at Work?

Despite all the good intentions out there, things certainly aren’t all rainbows (no pun intended) and unicorns when it comes to how LGBTQ employees actually experience their workplaces. In fact, according to surveys conducted by Out Now Consulting, more than 40% of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals, and almost 90% of transgender persons, have experienced discrimination in the workplace, harassment or mistreatment by co-workers.

That’s a lot of people who do not feel like valued members of their team, and who will end up stressed and unhappy. And while these employees’ humanity is the most important thing at stake, this state of affairs will also affect your business, when these stressed and unhappy employees become unproductive or decide to leave their jobs.

But it’s not just dealing with the decision to come out at work, and the microaggressions that can occur if they do come out, or the stress of having to live as someone other than who they are if they don’t come out. There are so many signs of heterosexual, cisgender privileges and assumptions at the workplace, and it can be stressful to deal with these things AND to be forced to be the ones to speak out against them. For example, some things to watch out for that can often be baked into the ethos of a workplace include:

Lack of gender-neutral restroom facility or inadequate signage.
Employment/human resource documents with only two gender options: “male” or “female.”
Lack of access to gender-affirming healthcare, life insurance, disability, and other employment benefits.
Inadequate or no employment health insurance coverage for LGBTQ significant others and dependents.
Inadequate or no employment life/disability insurance coverage for LGBTQ significant partners and dependents.

We need to remember that all of the above still exists; all the laws and equality indices we can think of aren’t going to make all of the issues facing real people go away overnight. It’s incumbent on everyone to change the culture, but the biggest responsibility lies with employers, who need to lead on this front, and not just because it’s the right thing to do. It’s also the right thing to do for your business.

The Value of Diversity

Equality and diversity are important goals in and of themselves, and creating a workplace that is inclusive for all is without a doubt great for employees. According to a survey conducted by the Williams Institute, The Business Impact of LGBT-Supportive Workplace Policies, LGBT employees who spend considerable time and effort hiding their identity in the workplace experience higher levels of stress and anxiety, resulting in health problems and work-related complaints. This means that an LGBTQ-friendly workplace will lead to improved health, increased job satisfaction, better relationships with co-workers and supervisors, and greater work commitment among LGBTQ workers.

But there is also actually concrete evidence that an equal, diverse, and inclusive workplace is a more effective, productive, and profitable workplace. Business owners who excel at equality have:

Employees who are more likely to remain in their current positions (especially if they’re able to be out in the workplace), meaning they save money on recruitment and training
Lower healthcare costs, because their employees tend to be in better health
An easier time attracting customers who are eager to do business with socially responsible companies
More loyal customers – In a national survey conducted by Harris Interactive in 2011, nearly nine out of ten (87 %) LGBT adults said they are likely to consider a brand providing equal workplace benefits. 23% of LGBT adults have switched products or services because a different company was supportive of the LGBT community, even if a brand was costlier or less convenient
A much bigger talent pool to choose from
Less stressed, more productive employees

So, while you can’t single-handedly change our culture, you can start with your workplace, and keep the momentum of equality, diversity, and inclusivity going. You can have an LGBTQ-friendly recruitment process, a workplace that is tolerant, except when it comes to intolerance, and a good eye for anything that keeps your employees from feeling like equal parts of your team. With the help of you and other good employers, we CAN get past LGBTQ discrimination at work, and keep everyone’s businesses growing at the same time.

The Beauty of Your Brand Is in the Eye of the Beholder: What Is Brand Perception and How Can You Measure It?

Your business is your baby, and you know exactly how you want other people, especially prospective customers, to see it. You’ve got a vision in your head of exactly what your brand is, what it means, and what it stands for, but there’s just one problem. Once you put your brand out into the world for everyone to see, you might still own it, but you won’t own people’s perception of it.

Whatever you want to project about the image of your brand, consumers will perceive it based on their own feelings and senses. And not only that, but you’ve got a really limited amount of time to influence them before they make their decision about your brand, so it’s important to measure your brand perception. So what do we mean by brand perception, and how can you go about measuring it?

What Is Brand Perception?

Brand perception is what consumers believe a product or service represents, not what the business that owns the brand says it does.

Simply put, brand perception is what consumers believe a product or service represents, not what the business that owns the brand says it does. And we’re not just talking about opinions: brand perception is more about feelings, attitudes, and experiences. Yes, your brand should evoke emotions in your customers: in fact, 94% of people said they’d be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with. Not only that, but after having a positive experience with a business, 77% of customers would recommend the brand to a friend.

So that means you need to be tapped into exactly how your customers feel when they engage with your brand, since it swings both ways. Just as people who have experienced positive feelings when interacting with your brand will become loyal customers, and will be more likely to recommend you, customers who have had negative associations with your brand are 50% more likely to share that experience with their friends and family than they are to share positive experiences.

You can see from the above that brand perception is incredibly important. After all, brand perception affects the type of customers you attract, the prices you can ask, and the partnerships you can build with other brands. Think of it like this: if customers believe in your brand they will be more confident in purchasing your products, other businesses will be more interested in partnering with you, and it will be easier to launch new products/services. Did you know, for example, that 59% of shoppers prefer to buy new products from the brands they trust?

All of this means that if you can nail your brand perception, you’ll have customers recommending your business left and right, as well as a band of loyal customers who are willing to stick with your business and try your new offerings. Sounds good, right? So let’s take a closer look at how brand perception is formed, and how you can measure it.

What Creates Your Brand Perception?

Here’s a statistic that should make you sit up and take notice: it takes an average of 10 seconds for consumers to form a perception of a brand. You don’t have much time to engage people in a positive way, so you need to be really on top of all the ways that people form their perceptions. Consider some of these common ways that influence how customers feel about your brand:

Logo – This is where people’s snap decision comes into play: is your logo evocative, with the right colors and/or words to catch the right people’s attention?

Advertising – What messages are you conveying in your advertising, and are you living up to those messages?

Experience – How does it feel to visit your website, or browse around your physical space?

Customer service – What vibe does your customer service give off? How does your team interact with customers, both through your site/shop and on social media?

Online reputation – How are you talked about online?

Pricing – Does your price point line up with the quality and experience you offer? It’s ok to be the lower- or higher-priced option in your field, but those prices need to reflect something positive about your brand.

Positioning – Does your business occupy a specific position in your marketplace, or would you like it to? Are you living up to that?

While customers are quick to form feelings about your brand, you need to be putting a lot of time and effort into shaping that snap judgment by focusing on all of the above. But before we look a little more closely at the above and how you can improve brand perception, we need to talk about measuring your brand perception, so you know where you stand and what you need to work on.

How Do You Measure Brand Perception?

According to a Bain and Company study, even though 80% of brands believe they provide great experiences, only about 8% of customers agree. Wow, that’s a big discrepancy. Turns out you can’t rely on your feelings when it comes to brand perception, even if your customers do! So how can you measure yours? Try these strategies:

Monitor social media – Keep a close eye on what people are saying about you on social media, while also tracking general trends and how people’s opinions are shifting around certain keywords. Consider using a social media listening tool.

Head to review sites – Social media isn’t the only place people will be talking about your brand. Check out what people are saying, and respond whenever you can, especially to negative reviews. Be sure not to ever sound defensive, though: every interaction you have with a customer should be made with an eye to boosting your brand perception.

Sign up for GoogleAlerts – If you’re running a small business, it might be tough to dedicate a ton of time to combing the internet for mentions of your business, so let GoogleAlerts do it for you.

Conduct customer services or focus groups – Include questions about

How likely they are to recommend your brand to others (and why or why not)

- What you can do to improve their experience
- What about your brand meets or exceeds their expectations
- What they like least about your product or service
- Whether their most recent experience enhanced their view of your brand
- If you’ve lost any customers, ask them why they left and how you could improve/win them back

Analyzing the above will give you a really good idea of how people perceive your brand, and should give you areas to work on.

How Can You Improve Your Brand Perception?

There are things you can do to build up your brand perception, so let’s take a look at those, through the lens of some statistics about how consumers feel:

Providing useful content will attract more customers.

Create content

82% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after reading customized content and 61% of people are more likely to buy from companies that deliver unique content. That means investing a little into a content marketing strategy can give your brand a boost, and win you some sales.

Be honest and authentic

94% of customers are likely to show loyalty to a brand that offers complete transparency, so be totally honest about your ingredients, your environmental impact, etc. Not only that, but customers want to see authenticity on social media: 86% of consumers prefer an authentic and honest brand personality on social networks. So be yourself!

Work on customer service

73% of consumers love a brand because of helpful customer service, so make sure you’re offering friendly and helpful service every chance you get.

Be responsible

13% of consumers would pay 31-50% more for your products or services if they were under the impression that your business is making a positive impact on the world, so consider incorporating social responsibility into your brand. Just remember to go all in, or don’t do it all: having a message that doesn’t align with your actions can spell disaster for your brand perception.

Get personal

73% of people prefer brands that personalize the shopping experience, so try sending out personalized emails with deals tailored to your customers.

Color yourself successful

Color improves brand recognition by up to 80%, so brush up on what colors evoke which emotions. Here’s a fun fact: a third of the logos of the top 100 companies in the world feature the color blue!

Be consistent

Consistently presented brands are 3.5 times more likely to enjoy excellent brand visibility than those with an inconsistent brand presentation. Not only that, but presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%, so make sure your product packaging, social media posts, website, and promotional material send a uniform message about your brand identity and its core values.

Use your senses

Visual marketing is very important to brand perception, but don’t forget about other senses, like smell, taste (free samples!), emotional connection (hello, ads that tug at your heart), and even hearing. For example, did you know that music can increase brand favorability by 46%? Might be time for a jingle!

You don’t own your brand’s perception, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t shape it! It’s up to you how you present your business to the world, and with all of the knowledge presented above, you have some excellent tools in your belt to get you noticed in the right way, and to keep your business growing.

Breaking Down Your Business: How to Write the Perfect Elevator Pitch

In most cases, marketing your business is not something that you want to rush. You need to take your time, work on your strategy, and craft your message so that prospects really understand what you’re all about. But sometimes you need to deliver that message in a ridiculously small amount of time to get your prospect’s attention, and that’s when all that hard work that goes into crafting your business’ message comes into play. If you can really break down exactly what you’re all about and deliver a perfect pitch in the time that it takes to ride on an elevator with someone, you could have them hooked. So let’s take a look at how you can write the perfect “elevator pitch” that will get a prospect’s attention in around 30 seconds!

What Is an Elevator Pitch?

So what exactly is an elevator pitch? Let’s start with what it’s not. It is not a sales pitch that’s meant to seal a deal on the spot. The goal of presenting your elevator pitch should be to earn a second conversation, not to convince the person you’re talking to that they should invest in or hire your business, or buy your solution. That means it’s not something you should be pasting into emails or bombarding people with as soon as they pick up the phone.

Instead, a polished elevator pitch is a brief, but compelling, breakdown of you and your business. It’s something you can pull out at networking events, conferences, or on warm sales calls. You should carefully craft it, making sure it’s no longer than a minute long (try to keep it to 30 seconds, in fact), and practice it until it becomes second nature (because it should feel natural, and not forced). It should:

Say who you are
Give a reason why your product or service can benefit the prospect, or some important features that would be interesting to investors
Get your listener excited about what you do, so that they want to hear more details
Encourage them to ask questions

Your elevator pitch doesn’t literally have to end with the doors closing on you! Remember to give your pitch, then listen to what your prospect has to say. If things go well, you will both ask questions and keep the conversation rolling. At the very least, offer your business card and ask to connect on LinkedIn.

It can feel a bit daunting to create the perfect elevator pitch: after all, sometimes distilling your message to its most interesting core is much tougher than running on and on about yourself. So how do you craft a brief, natural-sounding message that will get you noticed?

Crafting Your Elevator Pitch

Take a look at the following steps for getting all the info you need into your pitch, without adding too much extraneous bulk.

1. Briefly say who you are

Here’s the thing: research shows that talking about ourselves makes our brains light up in ways that feel really good, especially in stressful situations. That’s one of the reasons having an elevator pitch is so important: it’ll keep you from rambling on and on about yourself, which can spell disaster when trying to get a prospect’s attention. After all, they don’t know you or your business yet, and frankly don’t care about your life story! You need to earn their interest, so all you need to do at this point is introduce yourself with your name and your role/name of your business. If you want to get more creative, you can jazz up your job title with what your true function at your business is (i.e., what problems you solve).

2. Distill what your company does

This can feel tough, but if you know your business really well, you should be able to break down what you do into one compelling sentence. Here’s a tip for helping you to do this: don’t make the mistake of simply listing skills. Rather, you should describe who you serve and what you do for them. For example, “We help X type of business connect with the perfect X.” Essentially, your prospect should know what you do even if you’re cut off after the first two sentences.

3. What value do you offer?

Now we’re getting into the more interesting stuff. They know the who and the what, and now it’s time to get to the why. Why should they be interested in your business? What is it that sets you apart from other businesses? What kind of value can you offer them? Does each account get its own dedicated rep, for example, or have you created an efficiency-boosting tool unique to your industry? You can also use this space to establish your authority in your field.

4. Grab their attention

Hopefully your prospect is intrigued by now – and now it’s time to reel them in! One really effective way to finish your pitch is with an attention-grabbing statistic that relates to your business. For example, you can give an average percentage that you save customers, an amount of time you save, or even a percentage of customers who have a problem that you can solve.

5. Engage with a question

Once you drop your mind-blowing stat on them, you can ask them a question. It could be simply: “Does this sound like something you’d be interested in?” but it’s better to go a more engaging route, and ask an open-ended question, as opposed to a “yes” or “no” one. Try something more along the lines of, for example, “So, how does your organization handle X?” Once you’ve got the ball rolling, be sure to actively listen and engage with their answer.

6. Edit, and consider some unique formats

Once you’ve drafted your elevator pitch, including everything above, you can really fine-tune it. Edit it down to make sure it’s under a minute long, and that you haven’t rambled about yourself, or used overly technical language. Also really think about how you’ve formatted it. Is it easy to remember? Streamlined? Compelling? Unique? Remember, you can stick with the formula of who you are, what you do, what your business does/offers, and a hook, but don’t be afraid to play around with it a bit if that doesn’t work for you. For example, you can consider:

Leading off with a question
Having a surprise ending
Starting with a crazy stat (like how many hours employees spend on X) and how you can help solve that problem
Including your inspiration for starting your business/creating your product, or your origin story
Including a customer story
Mentioning a mutual connection

7. Practice, practice, practice!

Finally, once you’ve honed your elevator pitch you need to practice – and we mean practice it like you’re taking it to Carnegie Hall! You want to learn it well enough that you don’t stumble over it and sound like you don’t know what you do for a living, and practice it enough that it doesn’t sound overly rehearsed. It should eventually come out of your mouth smoothly, with energy, confidence, and enthusiasm, and it should always be ready at a moment’s notice, since you never know who you’ll run into!

Running your business is one thing, selling it is quite another. There’s definitely an art to making your pitch, and part of that art is knowing how to strike a balance between saying too much and simply answering the question “what do you do?” But if you’re ready with a well-crafted elevator pitch, you can really wow your prospects, and turn them into eager customers.

It’s All About the Follow-Through:Strategies for Following Up with Your Leads

It takes a lot of work to start a small business, but that’s nothing compared with the long, long process of generating leads, turning them into qualified prospects, converting them into customers, keeping their business… Phew, we’re tired just thinking about all that. But that whole process is what keeps your business going and growing, so it’s incredibly important that you’re fully engaged in every step, and aren’t forgetting how vitally important it is to follow up with leads, both in the short-term and long-term. Far too often, small business owners give up on leads too quickly, when just a little bit of (or a lot of!) follow-through could make all the difference. Why? Let’s check that out below, and then take a look at some strategies for following up with your leads.

What’s the Big Deal About Following Up?

We’re just going to put it right out there: if you’re giving up on prospects too quickly, you’re giving up on growing your business. One of the most eye-opening stats that we’ve seen regarding the importance of persistence and following up is this: 80% of completed sales require 5 follow-ups, but 44% of salespeople give up after just 1 follow-up! Let’s break that down further, and look at some other stats that prove the importance of following up:

Only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. This means businesses stand to lose potentially 98% of their sales leads if they do not follow up. In addition, only 3% of prospects will sign up on the second contact and only 5% will say yes on the third try.
92% of salespeople give up after no sales on the 4th attempt, meaning only 8% of salespeople get to that 5th follow-up. And 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes.
50% of buyers choose the business that responds first.
On average, high growth organizations report 16 touch points per prospect within a 2-4 week timespan
Salespeople who follow up with a lead within five minutes are 9 times more likely to convert them.
At any given time, only 3% of your market is actively buying, so you need to be there when your prospects are ready to buy!

Those numbers make it clear that it really is all about the follow-through – and that it’s not just the early bird, but the super persistent bird, who gets the worm. So what should you be doing to follow up with each prospect and get them to the point where they’re ready to buy?

Strategies for Following Up in the Short-Term

When you’ve generated some leads, the first thing you can do is segment them. After all, not all leads are going to be hot and ready to buy, or even warm! So, depending on how they came to you (e.g., through an email opt-in form, versus someone who filled out a contact form on your website), you’ll want to classify them as hot, warm, or cold, and then move them around as necessary as they move through your sales funnel. So once you know who you’ve got (be sure to have a system in place for tracking your leads), and how much warming they’ll need, it’s time to implement your short-term follow-up strategy. Try these steps:

1. Immediately send out an email

Any leads who come to you via email, fill out an online form, or who you meet at an event, etc, should get an email welcoming or thanking them ASAP. We live in a world where automating everything is possible, so take advantage of it, just don’t forget to personalize your communications.

2. Call if you can!

Email is great, but a phone call is even better in some circumstances, especially if you can place a follow-up call from your first contact within 12-24 hours. Most leads will need to have their questions thoroughly addressed before they commit to buying from you or hiring you, so sometimes your best bet is a good old-fashioned phone call to go over all the details. But remember: research shows, the sooner you pick up the phone, the better!

3. Schedule a follow-up call

If you’ve made contact with your lead, great! But always keep in mind those statistics from above, and remember that you’ll probably need to talk to them more than once, or twice, or even four times. So give your prospect the info they need in your first call, but don’t hang up the phone without trying to schedule a follow-up call appointment, so you know you’ll have a second point of contact with them.

4. Send a thank-you note

Things are getting serious now! Up your game by sending out a handwritten thank-you note, instead of a follow-up email.

5. Send out a reminder

note with the word reminder on it and a happy face magnet — *Setting a reminder can be helpful for you and the customer.*

It can be tough to gauge how much contact is too much, but it is generally worth it to send your lead a reminder email before your follow-up call. You won’t get anything out of an appointment that your prospect has forgotten about!

6. Make the follow-up call

Keep your appointment with your prospect, and use this time to review the info you went over with them in your first call, answer any new questions that have come up, and get a feel for whether now is the time for a call to action. They might not be ready to buy at this point, and you might have to start the process again with new information, but most prospects won’t buy unless you ask!

Hopefully you’ve landed yourself some ready-to-buy leads at this point, but even if you haven’t, it’s not time to give up. Start the process again, giving your lead some new information, and/or shift to your long-term strategies for following up.

Strategies for Following Up in the Long-Term

As we’ve already seen, not everyone is going to buy on the first, or fourth, attempt – and you know what? Some leads need even more time, so now we need to take a look at some tips for having more long-term follow-up strategies in place. These longer-term strategies aren’t necessarily going to have the same first step, second step, etc cadence of your short-term strategy, but they are things you need to think about when trying to play the long game in sales. And remember: it’s playing the long game that wins you customers in the end.

1. Qualify your leads

If you’re finding that you’re not getting a whole lot of bites after going through your short-term strategies, make sure you’re qualifying your leads. This way you’ll know who is most ready to buy (or the “hottest” prospects), and who needs to be put into your follow-up system. Remember, even if they don’t have the motivation and means right now, don’t write them off!

2. Get to know your leads’ preferred contact channels

As you get to know your leads better, you can hone in on exactly how they like to be contacted and what type of communication they respond to best, so your long-term efforts will be more likely to pay off. Try email, phone calls, social media, text messages, etc.

3. Have a schedule

Creating a follow-up schedule will help you stay consistent with your communications and prevent you from letting the leads you worked so hard to generate fall through the cracks. Try to create a schedule that helps keep you in your leads’ minds, but doesn’t annoy them! For example, try emailing once a week, calling once a month, and offering to meet up with them once per quarter.

3. Make it personal with the help of a CRM

One of the best ways to keep leads in your orbit is with the help of a content management system (content relation management software, or CRM). You can take the leads you’ve generated, and who you want to put into your long-term follow-up system, and plug in important info about them, like their birthdays or other personal tidbits, so you can send out super personalized communications. If you don’t want to invest in this software, you can also keep track of your prospects’ info with spreadsheets and calendars, it’ll just be a little more labor-intensive.

4. Use valuable content to keep leads interested

Part of your long-term strategy to keep your business on your leads’ radars can be expanding from just emailing and calling to capturing their interest with some valuable content. Blog posts, infographics, helpful stats, success stories, and downloadable guides are all great options – you can even use a downloadable guide or a video tutorial as a “baby step” to getting your leads to buy your product or service.

illustration of a person with ways of communication around them — *Asking for a referral can help get your business out there more.*

5. Ask for referrals

Most people are actually willing to give referrals, but only a small percentage of sales people actually do. Even people who aren’t quite ready to buy will often be willing to refer you to someone they know who is, if you’ve taken the time to build a relationship with them.

6. Know when to back off

Sometimes it’s just not meant to be. If your prospect has made it clear that they’re not interested after multiple attempts, it’s time to respectfully thank them for their time and back off. You never know, if you’ve made an impression on them, they might come back to you in the future.

When it comes to making sales, and growing your small business, it really all comes down to the relationships you build with leads – and hopefully the work you put into building these relationships will turn those leads into loyal customers! Just don’t be afraid to be persistent – it’s that fifth phone call that your competition didn’t make that could make all the difference!