Sunday 21 February 2016

The Personal Touch

As a kid I was brought up in a very “personable” home. My parents taught me the value of being personable. If I received any form of gift, a Thank –you note was sent. I was taught, if you receive a letter, you reply.

I carried that on into adulthood personally and professionally. Any e mail I receive through my full time job or my part time side businesses I run, every e mail gets a reply. Same goes for social media messages.

Recently I started to wonder if I was wasting my time with that philosophy.  A few weeks ago I decided to use my transferrable skills and eventually expand with freelance work for audio production and social media consulting. After talking to Chantal from Enterprise Temiskaming we discussed the lack of "personality" and interest business owners/employers have in general. I know myself I have had a few negative experiences with a couple companies wanting my services but had no interest in talking to you personally or even researching what I did, but rather push their years of experience or direct me to a poorly constructed webpage with a list of their rates. The "I don't have time to answer your questions but you need my service" is a big turn off to any client or employee.


This wasn't the case however when I was re searching music production companies.  Zach from First Com called me personally.  Right off the bat he mentioned where I worked, what I did part time and even mentioned a few hobbies. He had taken the time to check out my webpage and catered his conversation to benefitting me, not just the company he worked for. Throughout several conversations and e mails and thanks to his personal touch I felt like an induvial not a number, which made me want to work with his company. I’m using some of Zach’s approach when potential clients contact me, by responding with a comment about their job/company.

I had a similar experience with Jennifer from Mossop Media. I remember watching Jennifer as a news anchor on t.v when I was a teen. I stumbled across an article that was posted on Facebook written by herself about "Life After Job Loss" I shot off a quick e mail telling her I enjoyed the article and to my surprise I received a very personal e mail back with some great tips on how I can improve my future. She didn't push her company or her philosophy on life but rather challenged and encouraged me to better myself. 

Now I see how important the personal touch really is for networking and sales in any business. Those positive experience make me want do business with those individuals at the same time bettering myself and improve my businesses so my clients will have positive experiences themselves.  

There are many benefits to taking a few minutes out of our busy schedules to connect with potential clients or individuals. It may not generate business, but it says a lot about your character, which is important for any one in sales or the public eye or an induvial branching out on their own with personal projects.

There's always a TON of negative situations that sour us to stop doing what we stand for, but there is ALWAYS someone who reminds us, to keep doing what we know is right.


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