I have been using Twitter since December of 2008 @aliceheiman.  I currently have 897 followers – not 8,000 or 80,000, so I am obviously not the expert.  It took me quite some time to figure out how to use it effectively and I am still learning.  My observation, most people don’t use it well; using it solely to push information which is a one way communication.  Their goal: drive traffic to their blog or website. And if the information they give is valuable, it may do that.  I learn a lot from the people I follow on Twitter through their links and articles, and I in turn share with others.  Sure, it’s a great way to get information out, but I strongly believe we receive more when we engage in conversation and not just gain followers. For me Twitter works best if you can develop relationships with people and in order to do that you have to inspire dialogue.

If you want to get the most out of Twitter use it to communicate with your followers, not just by posting quotes, tips and blog posts – which you certainly should do, but by interacting. Make posts in a way that gets people thinking and encourages them to respond to you not just click your link.

1. Respond to the posts of others, don’t just retweet. Respond back your thoughts on their comment, ask them questions, start a conversation.

2. Get to know some of your followers and figure out who has information that your followers would appreciate and retweet or repost that info. If you click through on one of their blog posts, make a comment on their blog.

3. Find your followers and people you follow on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and Youtube and see what they are up to there. Connecting with them on multiple platforms lets you know them better.

If you are not sure what to do, watch some of the experts. Twitter is not designed to be a broadcast system, especially if you are trying to develop followers and elevate your status as an expert. It is best used to help you have a two way communication that develops a deeper relationship with followers and adds value to their lives.

Here is an article listing some twitter resources.

P.S. I am by no means a twitter expert, nor do I always implement very well the things I have laid out for you here, but when I do these things my followers grow and people connect with me so that I can be of service to them. And yes, I have gotten leads from Twitter.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter click here.

Why does everyone stop work this time of year?

My good friend Caryn Kopp wrote a great article on why it is so important for salespeople to keep working during November and December.   I have started with several new clients this month and I am doing lots of follow up to move sales through my funnel. Caryn outlines 5 reasons to keep prospecting in December.

Fill Your Pipeline In December

Why spend the last two weeks of December cleaning out files when you could be filling next year’s pipeline with new business?  Most business owners and salespeople believe that trying to reach prospects at year-end is pointless and instead spend time getting organized for the coming year.   In doing this, they miss out on one of the best times of the year to reach decision makers live.  Here’s what we’ve learned about prospecting in December…

1. Companies have fewer internal meetings during the last two weeks of the year due to employee vacations and mid-day holiday parties.  This means decision makers are more likely to be working at their desks and available when you call.
2. Many assistants take year-end time off (especially if they have school-age children), leaving decision makers to answer their own phones…without gatekeepers.
3. Decision makers who are in their offices at this time of year are more relaxed and chatty.
4. Your competitors don’t think this way.  They usually stop calling prospects the 2nd week of  December.  Your “share of voice” when leaving voicemails and reaching prospects live will be higher and you will get more accomplished with each call.
5. Decision makers will typically not accept a meeting from mid to end of December. However, if you request a date to meet NEXT year (which is just days away), their  calendars are usually wide open.  Ask for a meeting in early January and watch your calendar fill up.

This works especially well with hard-to-reach and senior level decision makers.  Connecting with prospect decision makers is just the first step in getting the door open.  Once you have a prospect on the phone you will need to deliver a content-rich message that is so relevant and compelling your prospect will invite you in for a meeting.  Does the message you are using now accomplish this for you?  Of course you must also be prepared to answer the objections that will inevitably come your way.  How much time have you spent pre-thinking answers that will get you past the objections you face?  Don’t forget to couple your objection response with a request for a next step.  How often do you do this?  What are you planning to do to develop new business this December?

About the author…Caryn Kopp, is the Managing Director and Chief Door Opener® of Kopp Consulting, LLC., a nationwide company which helps its clients secure initial meetings with high level, hard to reach, decision makers.  This program is called the Door Opener® Service.  Caryn is the author of The Path To The Cash! ®  The Words You NEED To Bypass Those Darned Prospect Objections!  This is the go-to book for getting in the door with prospects.  For more information go to www.koppconsultingusa.com.  

(In an earlier post, I discussed whether or not you should be on LinkedIn. If you’re new to LinkedIn, you’ll want to read that article first to learn how to build a strong network.)

There is lots of talk about the new LinkedIn company pages. For some it is just another place on the internet they need to keep current. It can seem daunting at times. I currently have business pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, and Youtube that I need to update regularly, along with all of my personal profiles. Not to mention this blog that needs new content weekly. It does take a lot of time, but so does any sales and marketing plan. The better you get at it the faster it is and the more results you get. That said, it is a lot to keep up with and it is constantly changing, so I do recommend you train someone at your company to help you or hire and train an intern.

There is plenty of good information out there on how to put up your company page and I have linked to those at the end of this article. What’s missing is what to do once you complete your company profile. It’s like any other social media, if you are posting things and no one is watching you don’t get results. So here are 5 things I am doing to get people to follow my company page. First and foremost, I let them know I have one and share the link in the following ways:

1. Add a LinkedIn button to your website – when clicked it will take them to your company page.

2. Follow your clients. When they see you follow them, they may follow you.

3. Post an update on your personal profile and include the link to your company page. (See example below.)

4. Get the url for your company page (like this http://www.linkedin.com/company/alice-heiman-llc) and put it at the end of your LinkedIn email messages.

5. Add a link to your LinkedIn Company page in the signature of your email (see below) and have it link to your company page. If you need to know how to do this, watch this screenr.

But don’t forget, once you have followers, you have to add value. So make a plan on what you will post and when. Then go back and check frequently to see if people are interacting and be sure to connect with them.

Below are some other resources to help you with LinkedIn Company Pages:

• Social Media Examiner - 5 Tips for Using The New LinkedIn Company Pages
• HubSpot’s ebook - How to Use LinkedIn for Business
• HubSpot - 11 Reasons Your LinkedIn Company Page Sucks 

If you’d like to learn more about how to use LinkedIn to generate leads, join my interactive webinar on December 15th at Noon (Pacific). Learn more…

Here I sit, the queen of follow up, writing a post about follow up because the past few weeks I have failed miserably at it.  Everyone blocks time on their calendar to attend an event, whether it be a trade show, conference or a professional organization’s networking event. But rarely do they schedule time to do the follow up.  I always recommend putting time on the calendar the next day after the event to sort through the business cards and a take appropriate actions.  But the past few weeks I have been so busy, I now have 3 stacks of business cards from recent events that are collecting dust.  Well this weekend I plan to do something about that and I thought I would share my plans with you and give you the list of follow up activities so that you can use them the next time you have follow up to do from networking.

1. Schedule time to do the follow up!  The very most important tip and the one I failed to do recently.  Block at least two opportunities for follow up in the 2 to 3 days following the event.  That way if something comes up and usurps the first scheduled time you have another planned.
2. Pre-plan you follow up.  Think about why you are going to the event, what you hope to accomplish, the types of people you will meet and use that information to decide what you will do to follow up.  You may end up drafting an email that you can tailor after the event or prepare a postcard with a specific message.  Or you may craft a message that you will cut and paste into a LinkedIn or Facebook email.  You might write an article that pertains to the event and prepare to post it on your blog and then email that link out after the event or post it on the corresponding LinkedIn group.
3. Use your smartphone.  This works really well when I am at a conference.  As I collect cards throughout the day I use the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn apps on my phone to connect with people.  I also use Card Munch, which allows you to take a photo of the card with your smartphone and add it to your database.
4. Hire Someone.  If you don’t have an assistant, hire someone to enter the contacts into your database so that you can easily contact them.  I do have an assistant, so I write on the business cards and then bundle them together with a note of where I collected them.  Then my assistant enters the data and a note for each that reminds me where I met them and any notes I may have written on the card.

When people ask me if they should be on LinkedIn I always ask, “Is anyone you do business with or want to do business with on LinkedIn?”  If the answer is yes, then you need to be on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool when used correctly.  But just “being” on LinkedIn is not enough. Having a profile on LinkedIn will get you about the same thing as going to a party and standing in the corner. Someone might come up to you but you can’t expect any results. If you want to get results you have to learn to utilize the tool and interact.

Having a complete profile is the bare minimum. Review your profile. Be sure it is complete and represents you well. I find so many people without a photo. To be effective you need a current headshot. A photo that looks like you so that someone who has met you in person would recognize you.

Next you need connections. A big mistake many people make is connecting with people they don’t know. What good is a long list of people you don’t know? What can you do with it? The idea is to build a strong useful network. One that you can reach out to for help. That means you need to know them and they need to know you, like you and trust you. Only then will the network be useful to you.

Here are my recommendations for building a strong network.

1. Connect with people you know. Start with friends, family and co-workers, then add clients and past clients. Add people you meet networking and people in your professional organizations. Don’t try to connect with people you don’t know. That comes later and it will be much easier and more effective once you have connected with everyone you do know.

2. Make it personal. Always send a personalized note, even if you know the person well. The idea is to connect and build the relationship. Example:

Hi John,
It was great to see you at the business networking event last night.  I’d like to talk to you further about the technology group you mentioned.  Let’s get connected on LinkedIn so we can share our networks. I look forward to talking again soon.
Best Regards,
Alice

3.Interact just like you would in real life. Login to LinkedIn daily. Answer emails, post your activity, and check out what people in your network are sharing and click “Like” or make a comment. Find more people you know and get connected.

4. Get involved with some groups. Notice I didn’t say join. Joining is not enough. You won’t get results. You have to get involved in the discussions and share valuable information. When people you don’t know from that group interact with you it gives you a reason to ask them to connect which widens your network. Find professional organizations that you belong to and join their groups on LinkedIn. Join your alumni association. Then search for other groups that would be interesting for you to belong to. This is one of the best ways to connect with people you don’t know.

5. Ask for introductions. If there is someone you don’t know that you want to be connected with find someone who knows you, likes you and trusts you to introduce you. This is much more effective than sending a connection request to someone who doesn’t know you. To increase the likelihood of being connected to people you don’t know by someone you do, you have to spend time getting connected and strengthening relationships with people you know. So go back to point 1 and 2 above.

Once you have done these things, LinkedIn will be a powerful way to stay connected with people you know, develop stronger relationships and get connected with people you want to know.

Read more to learn how to get people to follow your company on LinkedIn.

If your company needs sales training on how to use LinkedIn to get connected and build relationships we offer training webinars  or onsite training tailored to your industry.  Please call 775-852-5020 for more information.

This article is published in this month’s Start Up, a special edition of Entrepreneur Magazine from my interview with Katie Rossomano. It’s available at your  local bookstore or online.

Most entrepreneurs know networking is important, but they may not realize just how crucial it is to the success of their new venture.

“Building a network helps entrepreneurs get their product to market and get the right people in place,” says Alice Heiman, networking and sales expert and author of e-book Connecting Your Way to New Business. Heiman suggests five basic rules for building a trusted network that will help your startup succeed.  Read more . . .

I just finished reading Gerhard Gschwandtner’s 9/21 blog post,  Social Media Is Getting Tired…Social Business Is the New Frontier . I can really relate to the term Social Business.  I agree with Gerhard that social media is looked at as a waste of time and in many instances it can be.  However, for salespeople being present and interacting on social media is a must but the way they do it is critical.  As I’ve said many times, if you put up a profile on any of the social media channels and just sit there, it’s like going to a room full of all the people you need to know and standing in a corner.  Although someone might come up to you, your odds are not good so it’s basically a waste of time.  Utilizing social media channels to build relationships is a good use of time.  Using it to follow thought leaders in your industry and interact with them, and using it to follow trends in your industry and your customer’s industries is critical.  Social media makes it easier than ever to do these things.  Salespeople need to be connecting, interacting, building relationships and sharing knowledge which will all lead to sales.  But as Gerhard points out, “The big question is, why aren’t more salespeople getting with the program?” He shares some things he learned from his conversations with successful sales executives. Click here to read Gerhard’s blog.

And if you are not already subscribed to Selling Power Magazine, I highly recommend it. Their website has a wealth of information for salespeople and those who manage sales.

If you would like to learn how to do Social Business to get more sales, call me for a complimentary 30 minute phone consultation 775-852-5020.

This is a controversial topic. When you are volunteering, it should be from the heart and because you want to help your community. That said, I have met many wonderful people through my volunteer efforts over the years and some of them have become my clients.

Years ago when I was the president of Nevada Gifted and Talented, a non-profit that focused on the education of gifted children, I sat on the board with a wonderful woman who I got to know very well through all the projects we worked on together.  Through all our time together she learned what my “real job” was and one day she told me that her son-in-law was interested in talking to me about hiring a salesperson and growing his business.  She  already trusted me and she knew that I did a good job with everything we worked on together, so she easily sold my talents to her son-in-law.  I met with him and he was my client for 3 years.  Did I volunteer for Nevada Gifted and Talented in order to get more business? No, but I did a great job, got to know the people I volunteered with and I did find the opportunity to let them know what I did for a living.  I actually learned that part the hard way.

When I first moved to Reno, I joined the Reno Philharmonic Guild and helped them with a big new event called Pops on the River.  I worked with wonderful people and had a lot of fun.  One of the women I met was a decorator.  I asked her to come to my house to help me with a few projects.  We sat down at my dining room table to talk about my project and she looked at me and said, “What do you actually do for a living? Are you a professional fund raiser?”  I started to laugh.  After 3 years of working side by side with her on projects, I had never let her know what I did for a living.  I wonder how many referrals I may have missed?  Did I join the Philharmonic Guild to get referrals?  No, but why not let the people who know, like and trust you know what you do so that they might possibly refer you to someone who needs your services?  Wouldn’t you do the same for them?

I believe that you can meet qualified prospects from your volunteer work and here is how I recommend you do it.

1. Find something your are truly passionate about to volunteer for and commit to it.

2. Work hard for that organization and do a great job.  Maybe even get on the board after you have been on a committee for a while.

3. Get to know the other volunteers by working with them, but also take the opportunity to ask them to coffee and get to know them one to one.

4. When the opportunity arises, don’t hesitate to tell them a bit about what you do for a living.

5. Get to know what they do for work well enough to refer business to them if the opportunity arises.

In my current volunteer work for the Nevada Discovery Museum, I have been lucky enough to do work for one of the other board members and have collaborated on work projects with several others.  Did I volunteer for that board because I thought it would bring me business?  No, it was because I am passionate about kids getting a great education.  I worked hard, put my blood, sweat and tears into it and people notice.

Building a great network is a lifelong process.  Volunteer to do something you love and the rest will follow. Keep working on it and if you need some help getting connected, I am here to help.

Where do you meet your prospects? I’ve met some of my best prospects at my son’s sporting events.

Year’s ago when my son played Little League baseball, I hated sitting through those long games, especially when it was freezing cold outside.  But like you, I went to most of the games and cheered his team on to victory.  At the time I never would have told you that I went to the Little League games to network because I didn’t, but it’s definitely in my nature to meet people and get to know them.  I was just doing what I do and at each game I sat with someone different and chatted in between plays and before I knew it, I knew all the parents and what type of work they did.  By the same token, they knew me and what kind of work I did.

Did I walk up to people at the game and put out my hand and say, “Hi, I’m Alice Heiman and I will help you increase sales.”  Of course not, the parents would have run the other way.  But what I did let them know that inadvertently.   I wasn’t thinking, “If I go to the baseball game and sit with a different parent each week I will surely meet some new prospects.”  No, I was genuinely interested in getting to know all of the parents.

During one of those seasons, one of the parents did happen to have a company that needed my help and because I had taken the time to get to know him he felt comfortable to call me.  I did end up providing sales training for his company and it worked out great.

Looking back, I realize this was a great place to network.  But I didn’t go about it the same way I would if I was attending a business event designed for networking.  I did what came naturally.

I recommend you look around and find some opportunities to network at your children’s sporting events.  Don’t go around selling your products and services to the other parents.  But do sit with different parents and get to know them.  Build relationships that can lead to sales, in the event that person is ever in need of your services.  Be genuinely interested in others and don’t worry about talking about yourself, your chance will come if you are a good listener and get to know people.

Building your network is a lifelong process, look for opportunities at every point in your life, even your kid’s baseball game.

If you’d like to learn how to make connections & build relationships that lead to sales, join my online training webinar, Networking Mastery for Sales Professionals on September 21st.

“Social media takes so much time and I don’t see it generating business.”

I have heard this from many small business owners. It’s true that you can spend lots of time and not get any result unless you are doing things properly. It is also true that some businesses are generating a lot of sales using facebook and other social media sites. 

Here are a few tips on how to make the best use of Facebook for business owners so you can generate leads.

1. Make a plan. Any social media activity should be part of your businesses larger sales and marketing plan. Sit down and plan your posts and how they relate to the other sales and marketing you are doing.

2. Find fans. This starts with having friends on your personal page and driving traffic from your website or email signature to your business page. You have to engage fans so you may want to run a contest or have a giveaway to acquire fans but most importantly give them a reason to be your fan. Deliver great content, ideas, conversations.

3. Connect. You can only sell to people who know you, like you and trust you. Even if they don’t know you personally, they need to know your brand. Spend time connecting with people online just as you would in person. Get to know them, let them get to know you. Don’t just friend them and then never talk to them again. Figure out how to engage them and add value.

4. Be patient. Using social media as a form of marketing is a great idea, but it isn’t fast. You need to be online and be consistent. It could take months to start getting some traction, especially if you are doing it yourself and don’t know much about how social media marketing works.

If you would like to learn more please join me August 9th for an online sale training webinar. Find out more…

Facebook for business owners, a waste of time? Not if you ask me.