Who are we

Clever Resourcing is a skilled group of independent Technical & Business Communication specialists. GOOD communications leads to SUCCESSFUL projects, and you want your project to fly – safely. Whether you have:-

• A new system to rollout,
• A new product to develop & launch,
• An invention to bring to market, yet keep options open or maximise your intellectual property,
• Escalating translation costs, perhaps you need simple words and better graphics,
• Your company’s knowledge is at risk, as it resides in the heads of a few, or older, staff,
• Identified improvements & tweaks, to operate smoother, or improve profits, 
• Or an investment to win.

You can avoid the pitfalls, keep your project on track, all without distracting your key people.

Cooperation with Pitch&Mix

Pitch&Mix is promoted on www.meetup.com 8.45 for 9am-10am every Thursday currently at CB2 Cafe, Norfolk Street, Cambridge, UK.
22nd Sept 2016 Deb Stevens, Clever Resourcing, shared the innovative way of thinking about business questions called …

‘The Handshake‘

The concept is simple. Use five fingers and your whole hand as reminders of key questions you need to ask to think about your business differently.
Thumb Rule of Thumb. Who is your usual or typical customer? We need to know that in networking so we can help get business for you. It also reminds us to put thumbs up. Ask about positives first… and opportunities. Show you are one of the team, friends with The Fonz. YEAH!
First finger Like a child, prod and poke everything. What’s the characteristics and benefits of your products? your competitors? It’s your mobile phone scanning finger, so ask yourself what is the essential information YOU need (and skim the rest). Remind yourself NOT to ask accusatory questions. Frame questions without blame or in a way that allows an answer that doesn’t make you a snitch.
Middle finger This is usually slightly longer than your other fingers. For an Olympic swimmer, that’s the difference between silver and gold. What will you do to stretch yourself to go a little further today? How can you make your products and services just a little better? Are you reaching for gold profit? …customer service? …both?
Ring finger Marriage, perfect relationships with customers? suppliers? associates? What rules (professional and ethics) do you follow? What do you need to do to work at perfection? …excellence? … and the opposite… What rules are you prepared to break. to be innovative, different and stand out from the crowd? How far do you go to break convention rules to help colleagues in difficult situations?
Little finger     Crook your finger to exaggerate sipping a cup of tea elegantly. Exaggerate, distort or provoke a reaction, take an affected pose as you sip. What is right under your nose which in normal behaviour operation was lost in the mundane? Is it an opportunity or a risk which you nearly missed?
Whole hand     This carries baggage. Where are you starting from today? Is there anything you can ditch to be lighter; more agile? Handshake is a telecoms term referring to protocols and an agreed special language. How can you phrase questions to competitors (or would-be outsource suppliers for you) to check they understand key industry terminology? Have you mentioned these terms in your pitch? A whole hand is a welcome. Who will you greet and welcome to your contacts today?

We wish you well with YOUR questions!

To share the project, Philip Pepper, video producer, has been asked by Clever Resourcing to film different Pitch&Mix members asking these questions.
The end of the video will include credits and business descriptions of contributors and to Pitch&Mix.
Message us on Twitter: CleverResource, Facebook or LinkedIn to join the project. Challenge a colleague to ASK A QUESTION – and START OUR CONVERSATION.

About Pitch&Mix
At Pitch&Mix, we

• get a coffee and network,
• introduce ourselves in turn and explain what we want,
• use an option to present a pitch up to 3 minutes
• join a debate on an agreed TOPIC or collectively discuss answers to a vexing business QUESTION.

Without Pitch&Mix, we would not have been inspired to bring you ‘the Handshake‘! Why not join us in the video and share this approach with other businesses? Make your business, part of the Handshake ANSWERS.
Deb Stevens launched the Handshake at the ISTC conference TCUK just one week earlier. Lenka Koppova, a Social Media Consultant, suggested creating a video. Join in sharing innovation now.

Buyer and Seller Bar Codes Check out the image

About … is really about how WE may be able to help YOU solve your painful problems.
Join us on LinkedIn for a discussion about how selling presentations – pitches – were first created from a psychological analysis of a former Saachi and Saachi professional addressing a large conference in China. It demonstrated clever cultural changes to the norm because it reflected the perceived cultural sensitivities of the audience. Using Clever Resourcing ‘Buyer and Seller Bar Codes‘ helps you visualise your presentation, your pitch in terms of identified psychological sections you identify for both the audience (buyer) and presenter (seller).
For example, many Chinese welcome you demonstrating respect, so flattery may be the first section of your pitch. Imagine it coloured red. Make the width of the bar code equal the culturally correct length of time. Pause and have no colour to listen for non-verbal permission to continue. Make the white gap large too. Acknowledging expertise is a distinctly different psychology. Colour it blue and choose an appropriate width. Will it be a short factual acknowledgement? It might not be effusive, but it may be repeated throughout the pitch acknowledging each benefit which the buyer brings in using your service or products. Demonstrate synergy and understanding as an invitation to buy into a concept of a buyer/seller relationship. Make that stripe yellow. Offer proposals briefly and tentatively initially, so these stripes might be very thin, until you are sure the buyer wants to hear your full suggestion, overwhelmingly and something they can’t do without, so wider.
The sections, colours, widths, sequence and response can all be set by you. You might want a section of talking plainly, brutal honesty to show you are not lying, not trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, not being evasive. However, take care because in some Asian countries, saving face is everything and plain speaking is not welcome. Of course, individual company cultures and ethos are different, as are the individuals within those companies. Do learn ‘who is your audience’ and don’t assume everyone is at the same starting point. We are all different – thank goodness – but in Buyer and Seller Bar Codes you have a way of visualising your planned conversation AND reporting back on how it played out in reality.

Use Bar Codes to plan a video literally like no other. Create the video in segments which you can join together to make a section longer – to meet the needs of those wanting to watch a longer segment about … or if the viewer’s preference is for a short segment of that element (of interest, but not vital or something they are passionate about) then prune that content to the bare bones with just a summary. Perhaps with a ‘select more’ button.
For techies: For several years now, ISTC members have used single sourcing XML to tag text to appear online, with quick start guides having very short summaries and manuals having much more. The same approach can now be used in creating online video, on the fly, as determined by the viewers colour barcode preferences. Two people with different psychological and content needs can watch different videos from the same source. This is not the same as YouTube’s suggested channels.
For marketeers:
This is video segments to suit YOU, Your mood, YOUR profile on the fly. Music stations, video makers, marketeers… prepare for a major technology leap – based on a simple coloured bar code.
For innovators:
Does the idea of exploring innovation and opportunity through clever ways of visualising the world around you excite you?
Book an innovation workshop now.

Who could you use?

The other choices carry risks.

A new graduate

New graduates are cheap, but

• Are they professional communicators?
• Do they have the experience to draw on when problems arise?
• Will you need to spend longer guiding them?
• Do they plan and implement? or just dive in until they find their feet?

An old employee

Could be promising, but:

• Are they motivated and fast?
• Are they aware of new trends in related industries?
• Do they understand the threatening emerging competition?
• Do they like or avoid writing things down to track, trace, test & evaluate information.

Why Clever Resourcing

We:

• Have a single trading style to make invoicing simple,
• Don’t charge any on-top commissioning
• Respect confidentiality agreements
• Have professional experience.

Our associates have:

• In-depth experience across a wide range of industries,
• Cross-discipline skills to better understand the real world.

Your clever choice for professional communication is CLEVER resourcing.