Sales

Time To Rethink Your Networking Strategies?

by Alice Heiman on April 4, 2012

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.

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Starting the Conversation – What do you do?

by Alice Heiman on March 27, 2012

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.

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The Follow Up: Converting Networking Contacts into Results

March 19, 2012

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 [...]

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I’d like to get to know you but . . .

February 20, 2012

I am always telling business owners and salespeople to get out and network but so many of them don’t follow my advice.  There are many reasons but one of the biggest hurdles is approaching someone you don’t know; it’s a lot like cold-calling which most people hate.  Even me, as outgoing as I am, sometimes [...]

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5 Reasons to Keep Prospecting in December

December 18, 2011

December is a great time of year to prospect. 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.

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Where Did I Get This Business Card?

November 8, 2011

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 [...]

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Should I Be on LinkedIn?

October 24, 2011

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 [...]

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Five Rules for Building Strong Connections

October 17, 2011

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 [...]

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Social Business???

September 28, 2011

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 [...]

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Back to School on Social Media

September 9, 2011

It never hurts to go back to basics and  regroup.  When it comes to social media, things are changing so fast it is tough to keep up.  Here are 8 tips to help you look at your social media plan in a basic way that will help you excel. 1. Take a look at your [...]

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