Roddy Broadnax, Spirit Telecom
www.spirittelecom.com

“Gloom, despair and tragedy … on me, deep dark depression and excessive misery?” So go the words for the famous song seen on the long running TV series Hee Haw … or fast forward to today, and many of the national media outlets seem to echo these sentiments daily in print, radio and TV. But Charlotte area businesses, I’m here to tell you – don’t buy into that. The Charlotte business climate is one of the best and brightest among areas affected by our current economic climate and as always will rally and overcome the challenges that have presented themselves.

Step 1 – Stay positive and infuse that focus on your employees. Nothing worse than being asked "how's business?" by a potential customer and you responding with a sad face and sadder story.

Step 2 – Follow up that positive reinforcement with incentives for your employees as well as potential clients and customers…Americans hate to lose and love to win.

Step 3 – Grass roots marketing and networking pays huge dividends. Now more than ever get involved with the Chamber, social and business networking groups, civic and charitable organizations and get out and tell your story. Serve on a committee – cannot say that strongly enough. Optimism is a force multiplier, and you never know who you’ll meet that can champion your cause or product!

Step 4 – Go the extra mile for customer service, follow up and provide an ease of doing business. Even in tough times you can overcome price with quality of service and personalized involvement .

Step 5 – Back to basics for sales teams. Block out time for appointment setting, e-mail intros and lunch and learns. Working smart will generate many leads and find ways to “partner” with other vertical markets or companies that share your interest in similar businesses. Build a referral program and reward your friends and current customers for leads. You’ll be amazed how many people really want to help you.

These are only a few ideas that can make your business grow, and luckily for the team at Spirit Telecom, we are seeing great things as a result of these few simple best practices. We are moving forward on expanding our fiber optic network, and as a facilities based provider, we are able to bring quality products and services that many only thought national telco’s could provide.

With the huge national focus on healthcare, we are on the cutting edge of providing new products and services like IP video conferencing, medical imaging, VoIP, wireless data and telepresence. As we continue to work with hospitals, medical offices and non-profits to gain funding, we are leading the way with expansion of our fiber network from Charleston to Raleigh. Look for big announcements soon as we move quickly into the future!