Hi -

Happy Halloween! This month's issue includes a new feature I hope you'll like: " Odds & Ends." From today forward, it's where you'll find quick time-saving shortcuts to boost productivity, updates on past tips, newly discovered sites or tools, articles worth reading, and more. You'll find it at the bottom of the page.

Here's another treat for readers who like to pass these messages onto friends and colleagues -- a "Sign Up for Kip's Tips" button that makes it easy for those receiving your forwarded message to become subscribers themselves. Look for the link under the "Send This to a Friend" button on the left hand menu.

OK, on to this month's tip…

There are truly only a handful of technology tools I consider "must haves" for anyone serious about improving productivity. This month's topic is one of them. Used well, it will cut hours of down time from your work week. My advice: get it (if you don't already have it), use it, and make sure everyone else on your team does too.

And if you're already using it, I'd love to hear how. Just hit Reply and let me know.

Ever stop to consider how many hours a month you spend online? Between managing email, monitoring market activity, keeping up with client, prospect, and competitor information -- not to mention everything else you do with the Internet -- the total might surprise you.

According to Neilsen NetRatings, three years ago the average worker spent 27 hours a month online at work… roughly 3½ workdays worth of time or about 15% of a typical workweek.

Know what the number is today?

82. Eighty-two hours a month. Three times more. Less than four years later. That's frightening. If ever a statistic underscored the need to adopt more efficient ways of working with technology, that's it.

Here's a way to cut that time dramatically that doesn't cost you dime and will make your online productivity soar. Download and master Google's Toolbar, a free browser add-in available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

What exactly is the Toolbar and how does it help? Think of it as a dashboard of Google's most powerful search features built right into your browser ready 24/7 to guide you to the information you need whenever you need it, faster and with less frustration than you ever thought possible.

The first reason to love the Toolbar is that it lets you access Google's search engine from anywhere on the Web, without having to visit Google's home page first. Like when you're reading the paper and see someone quoted you'd like to know more about… or an organization's mentioned that you'd like more background on. Just press Alt + G to put your cursor in the Toolbar's search field, type in the name (or highlight and drag it there if you're reading online), hit Enter, and Presto! a list of results is displayed on screen.

Or here's another scenario that may hit home… ever come across a page with especially good information on a topic of interest to one or more of your clients -- a hobby, an event, a travel destination, a cause people are passionate about -- and wish you could quickly put your hands on other Web pages that speak to that same subject? The Toolbar's Similar Pages feature can tell you what those pages are instantly.

Or how about jumping instantly to exactly where your search terms appear in the text of a page so you can quickly decide if the page offers something of value… and you don't waste time scrolling through paragraphs of text unnecessarily to find out? The Toolbar gives you that ability too.

Want to forward a page you uncover onto others in your network you think would benefit from seeing it? The Toolbar's latest release (version 4) lets you do so in a couple of clicks.

Here are some other ways the Toolbar can shorten tasks you and your team probably perform every day:

1. Find addresses and phone numbers for anyone in the phone book. A real timesaver in locating both individual and corporate prospects. Try typing your own name and address, or a friend's, to see what I mean.
   
   
2. Get quotes and news on stocks. Type stock: followed by the symbol(s) you want to look up (e.g. stock:GE or stock:ECA – no space), and at the top of Google's list of results will be financial information on General Electric or Encana Corp from six of the leading sites Google Finance, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, CNN Money, and Reuters.
   
   
3. Search within a site for information. A great way to unearth mentions of clients or prospects that may be buried within trade group, company or news media sites; information you might otherwise miss.

Every successful financial services professional I've met shares a common passion. They like to compete and they love to win. That may mean landing a big client, making more money, working fewer hours, building a great team, buying or selling a business, or any number of other things.

What's usually easy is determining a goal. The hard part is figuring out how to achieve it -- and then getting it done. What to do first, second, third, tenth. Succeeding intentionally, not by accident.

Guiding clients in clarifying their goals and mapping out and executing a game plan to accomplish them is the essence of my coaching work. If you're not reaching your potential and any of the following are problem areas for you, we should talk:

• Finding and fixing productivity leaks - minimizing the time you lose to email, putting a stop to recreating information you know you already have, locating what you need online faster, and delivering on follow-up commitments more efficiently are just a few examples
  
  
• Defining sales and service processes – from contact to contract to ongoing care and feeding of clients… understanding who does what when, and where technology fits (or could fit) into the picture
  
  
• Developing a marketing communication strategy and calendar – mapping out an annual plan for keeping in touch with and in front of clients, prospects, centers of influence, and the media
  
  
• Cultivating referrals from current clients – strategies and tactics for expanding your business with help from those who know it best
  
  
• Designing a step-by-step improvement plan for strengthening key aspects of your business - identifying opportunities and developing work flows in designated areas of the practice
  
  
• Team building and successful delegation – defining the vision, setting expectations, identifying desired results, managing the process, and the tools that make it easier

Please keep me in mind if you're involved in booking or recommending speakers for national or chapter events at AICPA, FPA, NAIFA, NAPFA, the Society for Financial Service Professionals, or any other industry group. My sessions offer the kind of practical, innovative, take-it-back-to-the-office-and-put-it-to-work-immediately value attendees are looking for... useful content that will save them time, increase their income, and improve their effectiveness.

Or perhaps you work for a product or service provider and you're currently planning a national sales meeting, due diligence road show, or sales force training calendar. Let me show you how to increase your meeting ROI by delivering tangible, value-added content that draws advisors closer to your firm and helps both you and them do more business.

Either way email or call me at 202.364.6913 to explore how I'll assist you in getting more mileage from your event. I'd be happy to schedule a webinar with your and your colleagues to see and hear my material firsthand.

Grown frustrated calling companies for customer service only to speak to a computer... when what you want is a human being? Bookmark GetHuman.com. I first mentioned the site in last December's tip. At the time, it provided instructions on how to reach a real live CSR at over 150 companies. The number's now 500. You and your clients probably buy from many of them. Remember Google Alerts highlighted in the August tip? Google's recently expanded the scope of the key word/phrase tracking you can do to include Blogs and Google Groups. Those can be especially valuable resources if you want to read what others are saying about a company, high-profile prospect, or hobby/personal interest one or more clients or prospects are interested in. All for free. Thinking of buying a book through Amazon but don't want to order it blind? Look for the "Search inside this book" link right under the image of the book on its Amazon page (not all books have this ability). Clicking on that link will open the AmazonOnlineReader where you'll see sections from the book that you can either browse or search through. To see it in action, click here to search or browse Winning Clients in a Wired World.

Got a tip you'd like to share? Or a topic you'd like to see covered in a future issue? Email me your ideas.

Until next time wishing you all the best,

Kip Gregory

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The Gregory Group: Teaching Clients to Leverage Their Time, Talent, and Technology to Increase Productivity and Profit
202.364.6913

http://www.kipgregory.com

© 2006 Kip Gregory. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or republishing this content either electronically or in print without prior permission is prohibited.