What’s your networking strategy?

How many hours do you spend preparing , driving , and attending networking events that feel like a waste of time?  If your feeling is  “There is no one there I want to meet,” or “These never result in business,” then it is time to rethink your networking strategy.  Yes, you need a networking strategy.

If your purpose in networking is to generate leads, referrals, and sales, you need to start by making sure you are in the right place.   If you do all the right things in the wrong place, you will leave without the results you are looking for.  There are so many  places to network,  it can be difficult to know where to start.

• Which events are worth your time?
•  Which ones are most likely to result in business?

With any marketing campaign, you need to know your target market .  Don’t take that the wrong way.   I know you know your target market; your ideal customer – right?  We better take a second here and double check that . . .

• First write down the characteristics that describe the customers that buy from you, or you think would buy from you if they knew about you.
•  How would you describe them demographically?
• What size, what revenue, how many employees, location, privately held.
• Who buys from you?

Until you do that, your networking efforts are going to be pretty much wasted. So I will wait for you.  When you get that figured out, I will be right here…….

OK, so now you know who your target audience is for your product or service.  Then ask yourself -  is that your target market for your networking effort?  The answer is yes, and no.

• Yes, you absolutely want to network in places where your potential  customers will be.  You also want to network in places where there are credible people who can refer business to you.  Your mission is to figure out where those two groups of people are, and be there.

Where are you currently networking?  Who goes to them?  Can they either buy from you, or refer you to people who can buy from you?  If not, then you aren’t networking to develop new business.

So, where are the people you want to network with?  Would you be better off doing one networking meeting a year with people who can actually help you build your business, than 5 networking meetings a month with people who can’t?  Probably.  You wouldn’t send out marketing letters to people in your neighborhood, if who you really needed to reach were CEO’s of fortune 500 companies (well, not my neighborhood anyway).  So, you aren’t going to attend your local Chamber of Commerce Meeting if your target market is doctors.

Take the time to create a Networking Strategy that will help you reach people who will help you build your business, and then follow it.  Choose organizations, trade shows, conferences and social groups where the people you need to meet gather.  Look for places both online and off where you can build relationships with the people you need to meet.

I’d be happy to brainstorm with you and help you set your strategy.  Mention this blog post and get a special networking strategy session for $97.

For more on networking read my most recent articles in Connect , and Rejuvenate.  Also read my related articles and  go to my website to request my free e-book Connecting Your Way To New Business.

Related articles

• Pre-event Preparations for Networking Success (smartsalestips.com)

We have all been asked a million times, “What do you do?”  How do you answer the question?  Do you launch into a long winded explanation, or do you say something boring like, “I’m in sales at ABC Company.”  Your answer can make or break the conversation. It can help you engage or repel the person you are talking to,  and yet, so many people spend little or no time determining what to say and actually practicing it.

My initial response used to be: “I’m a sales consultant and what I do is work with  senior management to do a gap analysis and figure out what they need to do to get them from where they are  to where they want to be. ”  I have watched eyes glaze over and hear the word, “Oh” come out of their mouth.  I was stuck there.  When they said “Oh” I would immediately ask, “What do you do?” and switch the attention to them.

It took time, but I worked on a (short) interesting answer that prompted, “How do you do that?”  I finally ended up with, “I help companies increase sales.”  When they ask how I do that, I have a few short stories prepared that I can tell, or if it’s the appropriate situation I’ll offer examples for their own company. If the situation allows, feel empowered to tailor to the person you are speaking to.

• Your goal: to engage the people you are conversing with and prompt more interest. Once you reach that point, you can give your “elevator pitch.”

The idea of an “elevator pitch” is that if you had a one minute elevator ride and someone asked you, “What do you do?” you could tell them in that time a way that catches their interest. I suggest having a couple different lengths, as sometimes 30 seconds is all you have. Here are some examples:

• Instead of, “I’m a Realtor and I am looking for anyone who wants to buy a home.”   This doesn’t help you stand out and it’s not engaging,  you are one of thousands. But if you said, “I help first time home buyers find their dream home.  I specialize in homes under $200,000 in the Reno area, and I would love to meet people you know that are looking for their first home.” Not only would people be more engaged, they would know exactly what kind of lead to send your way and might even know someone who fits your description.
• Instead of , “I’m a tax accountant.”  Say something like, “I like to help business owners keep their money in their pockets.  I specialize in preparing taxes for companies with revenues under $10 million and I am looking for business owners who believe they should be paying less to the IRS.”

Those sentences convey clearly what you do and who you do it for.  It tells the listener an idea of who to refer to you, all in 15 seconds.  If needed you could probably add 2 or 3 more sentences.  I recommend brainstorming some things you can say, write them down, rework them and then practice saying them until it becomes second nature. Then practice, practice, practice.

Need help crafting your answer to “What do you do”?  Call me for a special session for only $97,  if you mention this blog post.

For more on networking, read my most recent article in Connect and my related articles or go to my website and request my free e-book Connecting Your Way To New Business.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Working the Room: Network for Success (smartsalestips.com)
• Networking is not Selling (smartsalestips.com)

Networking is one of the easiest and most effective ways to generate leads and increase sales.  This being said,  I often hear people say they attend a lot of networking events but don‘t get any business from them.   I then ask them a series of questions:

• How do you choose which events to attend?
• What do you do at these events?
• What do you do after the event?

Through my training, I teach my clients how to approach people by asking questions instead of walking up and trying to sell.   I  teach them what to say in 30 seconds that tells people what they do.  I also teach them to ask directly for the type of business they want, and most importantly, what to do after an event.

The biggest problem seems to be follow up.  They rarely do what it would take to turn those contacts into business.  In last week’s article,  “Working the Room – Network for Success”,  I showed you four simple steps to turn a networking event from social hour into a successful evening of  new sales and business partners.  Now let’s talk about what to do after the event:

• What do I do after the event

Immediately enter the business cards you collected into your database.

Be sure to add any notes you made on the cards during the event. I always add the name of the event and the date so I can remember where we met.  If you don’t enter them in your database throw them out!  Yes, it is okay to throw out a business card.  If you’re not sure, band the cards from a specific event together, and if you don’t touch them in a month or two, toss them.  If I send an email or a card,  I make a note of that also.

•  If you say, “Let’s get together for coffee or lunch,” then make that happen.

It shouldn’t be something you just say to make conversation. You need to call, email or connect on social media after the event to set it up. A handwritten note is also a nice touch.  You should send it within 48 hours after the event.

•  Decide how you plan to keep in contact on a regular basis.

Once you have made the connection, interact with them. Read their posts and comment. Watch the media for the people you are interested in. If you see an article about them, clip it and send it to them with a note about doing business together. If you read an article that would interest them, send it.  If they are not a potential customer build a relationship that could lead to referrals or a potential collaboration by referring people to them. If they are a potential customer, learn as much as you can about their business and the ways you might help them.

Everyone can learn to network. Salespeople and entrepreneurs need to become expert at it.   Develop your networking strategy. Choose carefully the events you attend and follow your strategy to turn all the time, money and effort spent  networking  into business.

For more on networking read my most recent article in Connect and my related articles or go to my website and request my free e-book Connecting Your Way To New Business.

Related articles

• Working the Room: Network for Success (smartsalestips.com)
• Networking is not Selling (smartsalestips.com)

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.

Small businesses are struggling to generate sales in this difficult economy. Read more for some tips for surviving— even thriving— in tough times.

It’s not what we do or how we do it but why that differentiates us. Today I was on the radio show Bosma on Business. Mike asked us what’s the number one thing that will increase sales? I agreed with all the answers they gave as things that will help you increase sales but in my opinion the number one thing that has to come before all the others is that you have to believe you can increase sales. And in order to believe that, you have to believe that what you are selling has value and that people need it because it will make a difference and have a significant impact on what they are trying to accomplish. This is why in a small business or a start up the owner or founders frequently tell me that they out sell their sales team. Of course they do,  they have incredible passion and refuse to fail. If they are still outselling their sales team maybe they have failed to engage them fully in their mission or to help them understand why they started the business and why it matters. Their salespeople are out selling what the company does and how they do it, instead of why. This requires passion. The business owner needs to be an inspiring leader to instill this in the salespeople. If the salespeople love what they do and believe fully in the company and its products the sales will follow. Of course they need training and coaching but all the training and coaching in the world won’t help salespeople exceed quota if they don’t believe. I am reading a great book that explains this very well, Start With Why by Simon Sinek. I highly recommend every business owner and everyone who has to sell read this book.

Think of it this way, the selling doesn’t start until you suspect a need.  How would you come to suspect a need? By getting to know the person. By asking questions and listening.  Once they say they are interested you can start learning more and educating them but instead of telling them the features and benefits of your product and trying to differentiate your product from others what if you helped them understand why your company does what it does, why you love your job and why you believe in your offerings.  You would be getting them excited and engaged.  Why you do what you do can differentiate you and help people understand why they should buy from you.

Here’s an example.

How: I sell sales training, coaching and consulting.

What: I help companies increase sales.

Why: I believe that every company can have all the sales they need.

The last one is more engaging.  It’s emotional.  Every business owner and salesperson I know wants to have all the sales they need.  Think about how you can help your customers and prospects understand your “why”.  If you are having trouble with that give me a shout at answers@aliceheiman.com or call me at 775-852-5020.

I was listening to this Sales Management Minute from my colleague,  Lee Salz and it will really hit home with small business owners and managers. I posted this response to him on LinkedIn and thought I would share it with you because so many companies have struggled with hiring and onboarding salespeople.

Onboarding salespeople is one of the toughest things my small businesses face. They flat out don’t do it because they don’t understand what needs to be done.  A few months later they are complaining that their salesperson isn’t performing.  Large companies often have the luxury of hiring several salespeople at one time and sending them through two weeks of product and company training. That is a start and their manager gets them.  In companies large and small it would behoove them to have a formal onboarding process with a check list of things the salesperson needs to become proficient at in order to sell successfully for their company.  Notice I said, “for their company” and that is because that salesperson may have been great for the last company but now they are at your company and it is different and they need to learn their new selling job and all the nuances. Onboarding is only going to work if the right person was hired in the first place so I recommend taking a step back and looking at your hiring process.  If you hire right, onboarding will be more successful. 

In my opinion the onboarding process needs to start with learning the people and the culture of the organization and that can happen simultaneously with product training.  Then shadowing a successful salesperson and in a small company that can sometimes be the business owner.  Once the salesperson is ready to start selling someone needs to shadow him for a week or so to be sure things are going well, tell him what he is doing right and make corrections.  I’ll like to call the customers and prospects that he called on to see what their experience has been and get their feedback.  I also like to talk to all of the people at the company that the new salesperson interacts with and get their impressions.  My goal is to make this salesperson successful and avoid problems down the road.  It’s easier to give feedback and make corrections in the first few months before bad habits set in.  I’m sure people reading this are thinking this is too much and takes too much time. I’ve heard many sales managers and business owners say, “I hired him because he knew how to sell, why do I need to teach him to sell.”  They think product training is enough.  If you have a process for onboarding it actually takes very little extra time, it saves you thousands of dollars and gets your salesperson generating revenue more quickly. 

Read more on this topic in my article, Why Your New Salesperson Isn’t Selling Anything

There are so many e-newsletters out there and not enough time to read them all.  Trying to find the ones that are worthwhile is difficult.  I have a few favorites and Sam Horn’s is one of them. Her recent article How Can I Turn a No into a Yes? is an excellent read.  I have re-posted it below.  If you haven’t already, please purchase her book POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd and visit her website for more great information www.samhorn.com.

How Can I Turn a No into a Yes? by Sam Horn

Closing the deal doesn’t have to be hard.  It starts with building a solid relationship with the people who will make the decision, clearly understanding their needs, matching your offering to their needs to show them the fit, providing your offering for a fair price and asking for the business. (Not to over simplify, I know there are demos, trials, proposals and other things that need to happen in some cases.) 

You have t0 do the hard work but I promise you, if you do it closing will be easier and I also promise that closing will be hard to do if you don’t have the answer to the following 8 questions. 

1. What is your budget?
2. Who else besides yourself will be involved in making the decision?
3. What is the best way to include everyone involved in the decision making process?
4. What is your timeline for implementation?
5. What is your timeline for making a decision?
6. How will our solution meet your needs?
7. What other solutions have you considered?
8. On what factors will you make your decision?

Many times salespeople tell me they are having trouble closing a deal.  I ask them to tell me the situation and the answers to those questions.  Typically, they can’t answer all of them but they were ready to close.  Once they go back and ask those questions they are usually able to move the sale forward or at least understand why the sale is stalled. 

Make it part of your sales call planning to ask these questions at the appropriate times and confirm the answers.  If you do, closing will be much easier.

I always enjoy reading Gerhard’s blog.  This link is to The 10 Best Books to Read in 2010.

http://sellingpower.typepad.com/gg/2009/12/the-10-best-books-to-read-in-2010-part-i-.html