Nina Sunday's Blog
2012 February
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Business Writing Tip
Style manual
For all your questions about correct usage and style, the essential reference for every office is:
- Style manual: for authors, editors and printers (paperback)
ISBN: 978 0 7016 3648 7 - Style manual: for authors, editors and printers (hardcover)
ISBN: 978 0 7016 3647 0Google books lists various online and retail outlets.
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Email Writing Tip
What Are Top 5 Complaints of Email Communication?
by Nina Sunday
Most of us receive too many emails. That's a given.
But what specifically irritates you about how emails are written?
We asked Business Writing participants their list of email pet hates. In this article we reveal the top 5 complaints and what you can do about it.
Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Here's complaint #1 . . . read more
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Change Management Tip
Do Not Go to People With Answers. Go to Them With Questions.
Management is often threatened by . . . read more
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Presentation Skills Tip
How to Open a Presentation So Your Audience Immediately Sits Up Wanting To Know More
by Nina Sunday
If I open a talk with . . . 'Do you know what's really scary about India? The population is 1.2 billion people, yet 35% are under 15 years of age',
. . . this question and answer is dramatic and has impact.
What if I’d opened instead with, 'Today I’m going to talk about the population growth in India.'
If you were in the audience, your response would probably be . . . ho hum!
There are many ways to open a presentation, but my personal favourite is to ask a provocative question relevant to the topic. Four simple adjectives evoke a basic emotional response and those four words are . . . read more
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Time Management Tip
Mind Churn - How To Cure
Staying Awake At Night Thinking About All Your To-Dos
by Nina Sunday
Do you ever stay awake at night, your mind going over and over all the little things you have to do? This is called ‘mind churn’, and there’s a ridiculously simple way to cure it . . . read more
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Customer Service Tip
Employee Satisfaction is Key to Customer Satisfaction, New University Study Reveals
by Nina Sunday
A new customer service study from University of Missouri published this month in the Journal of Service Research finds that companies who . . . read more
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Time Management Tip
Do It Faster By Being Satisfied With Adequate Instead of Perfect
Did you know competitive chess was originally played without a clock? In early chess competitions of the 1880s, chess masters spent all day deliberating over read more
Customer Service Tip
Try This Customer Service Quiz With Your Team On Reasons Clients Stop Using Any Businessby Nina Sunday
There are useful lessons to be learned by analysing reasons clients stop usingany business.
A well-known research study* identified five typical reasons customers leave, and here they are read more
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Customer Service Tip
by Nina Sunday
Recently I responded over the phone to a television promotion to purchase an item. In these days of fast service delivery I expected slightly faster fulfillment than the 14 days I was told it would arrive. Still, I mentally locked in 14 days.
When the item arrived in 7 days, I was pleasantly surprised and felt good about the company I'd bought from. By building a buffer around the read more
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Selling and Negotiation Skills Tip
Feel – Felt – Found: Try This Classic Negotiation Tactic Using ‘Social Proof' As a Reason To Buy
by Nina Sunday
Can you think of a time when a client considered your product or service too expensive or not rightor just had any reason not to proceed?
How to Set Up Simple E-mail Templates for Frequently Used Responses
by Nina Sunday
Here's a way to set up simple e-mail templates in MS Outlook so everyone sends consistent, frequently used responses. Do you have more than one staff member e-mailing clients similar information, yet using different wording?
Does your team waste time re-inventing the wheel, each starting a fresh e-mail every time they communicate?
Here's an easy way to send consistent communication to clients every time read more
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Presentation Skills Tip
Why Should You Open and Lead Your Presentation With More Questions?
by Nina Sunday
Do you ask lots of questions when you present?
Don't tell, remember to ask instead. Why ask questions?
When you ask a question, your audience seeks out the read more
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Leadership Tip
Managing People: How to Give Feedback Using a 5-Step Verbal Template
by Nina Sunday
Have you ever given feedback at work only to find it created tension? Or do you sometimes find yourself holding back what you'd really like to say for fear it won't be well-received?If you observe unacceptable behaviour it can read more
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Customer Service Tip
Answer the Phone With a Smile in Your Voice, and the Same Way Every Time
by Nina Sunday
In the eyes of your customer, every contact is a moment of truth.
A moment of truth, because with every phone call your caller might be deciding whether to read more
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Selling Skills Tip
How to Respond to the Hollywood Brush-off, 'Don't Call Us, We'll Call You'
by Nina Sunday
Every salesperson has heard variations of the over the telephone brush-off line, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ I call this the Hollywood objection.
Use this 5-step method so you retain permission to stay in contact read more
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Business Etiquette Tips
5 Annoying Open Plan Office Behaviours.
by Nina Sunday
While open plan office design keeps everyone in the loop and cultivates a high performing team atmosphere, there is a downside to working without walls read more
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Memory Improvement Tip
How to Remember People's Names and Never Be Embarrassed Again
by Nina Sunday
Remembering people's names, particularly in business, is unquestionably a tremendous asset. Yet how many of us struggle to recall someone's name five seconds after we've met them, let alone weeks later when we run into them again? Quite a few of us, if Macquarie Dictionary is anything to go by. It lists read more
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How to Prevent Eyestrain and Read Faster Onscreen
by Nina Sunday
Research shows reading onscreen can be 25%-40% slower than reading paper-based publications. Find out how to make reading onscreen as easy and quick as possible read more
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Tim Toady– There is More Than One Way To Do It
by Nina Sunday
Do you know what’s tricky about communication? For the same set of instructions there can be more than one way to interpret, and you can end up with different results.
It can be hard to know if your instructions are 100% clear or unambiguous, until you get read more
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Presentation Skills Tip
Self-talk - What Do You Say To Yourself Before Presenting To An Audience?
by Nina Sunday
Does your internal conversation sabotage your confidence just before you present?
Let me tell you a story. I was once a contestant on a well-known TV Quiz show.
New contestants entered the set through sliding doors. A female contestant was accompanied by a male model in a tuxedo. As he and I stood waiting for the sliding doors to open, he asked read more
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Presentation Skills Tip
When You Present, Do You Have a 'Call to Action'?
by Nina Sunday
Whenever you present, even if your purpose is to inform rather than persuade or sell, you’ll most likely want to connect with your audience. One way to connect, and perhaps gauge how well your presentation was received, is to read more
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Business Communication Tip
Don't Hide Behind E-mail. Know When to Pick Up the Phone Instead.
by Nina Sunday
I've been asked a lot lately about how to know when to pick up the phone rather than e-mail.
Ever found yourself writing and rewriting the same paragraph over and over in an e-mail?
Or struggling to find just the right words to convey the correct tone?
That's a sure sign to read more
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Business Communication Tip
How to Say No To a Customer Request Without Using the 'No' word.
by Nina Sunday
It’s good to be flexible with customers and make exceptions to rules.
But how do you say ‘no’ to someone when you just cannot agree to what they are asking for? How can you manage client expectations? read more
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