From Visibility to Profitability – step #1

We start our step-by-step journey from Visibility to Profitability with the business card. And we are going to look at whether it really works for you.

So take out one of your current business card and hold it at arms length. Imagine it is someone else’s and they are wearing it in a cardholder at a networking meeting. Could someone else make out your name clearly?

It is vital that the easiest thing to read on your business card is your name.

It needs to be:-

• at least 14 pt., (in a serif style font as they are easier to read)
• spelt as you would like to be addressed
• in the centre of the card so it attracts attention

So, what other important things need to be on your card?

• email address
• phone number
• postal/delivery address
• website address

Anything else is optional – the above are a necessity.

Robyn Henderson, the Networking Guru, tells us that our business card needs firstly to be a name card. And if you think about it, people do business with people. Not Companies. Not Divisions of Companies. But people!

These are some basic suggestions. You could go “way out” with some of the most unusual ideas as listed on Mashable recently!

So now you have a good name card use it well and often. Give them away regularly as they are one of the cheapest forms of advertising and one of your first steps in moving from Visibility to Profitability.

What are you selling?

It never ceases to amaze me that people in business can’t quickly and concisely answer this question!

I either get a whole lot of jumbled words, a blank stare or a statement that reflects the fact that they don’t really know.

So why is this?

For me it is because they don’t really understand the concept of building business relationships to the point where you don’t sell, people buy from you.

In her brilliant book, “know me, like me, follow me” Penny Power – the founder of Ecademy – talks about this concept of building relationships so that people get to know you, start to like you and will follow you – which in many cases also means buy from you. Check out Penny’s blog for some great information!

So the simple answer to the question is “me”… that’s what I am selling! Yet that is not a good response when asked.

There are several non productive ways to answer that question and one very productive way that gets results and starts building a relationship.

The non-productive way is to start talking about either yourself or your product/service.

So despite the fact that you have been asked that question it doesn’t matter if you don’t answer it directly or immediately.

A better and more productive way is to ask a question back.

Something like….

“Before I answer that question …………. can you tell me please what it is that you do and what your biggest challenge in business is?”

“I would like to understand your business a whole lot better before I talk about my product/service. I think there may be some value to you yet I want to get more information about you first. So tell me ……………. what is it that you do?”

The goal here is to get enough information about the person, their business and their challenges so that you can then be of service to them with suggestions, even if they don’t include direct business for you.

So what will you answer when next asked….. “what are you selling?”

5 Sure Fire Steps to Million $ Relationships!

Following on from the last blog – The Biggest Number Wins – here is my guaranteed 5 step process for building million dollar relationships.

Assuming you and I have just met a networking function, had a brief chat and exchanged business cards, here is the process I use to follow up on that initial connection.

1. Using my iPhone App – Voice4mail – that same day or the very next day I will send you a personal message saying it was good to meet you and that I am looking forward to continuing the connection.

2. Using my SendOutCards account I will send you a card in the mail with a personal message, maybe even in my own handwriting – reaffirming the connection.

3. Five to seven days after meeting you I will phone…. to ask whether you have received my card even though I am sure you have. This starts a conversation that is non-threatening and nothing to do with business. Assuming we have some sort of connection I will suggest that we meet up for a coffee.

4. At our coffee meeting we will talk about each other and our businesses and see where there is any synergy and how we might assist each other.

5. Immediately after that coffee meeting I will send you another card using my SendOutCards account saying thans for your time.

My goal is to create TOMA (Top Of Mind Awareness) with you. And it works….. every time!

It helped me build a million dollar relationship business in Australia.

Emails won’t do it – yet my research shows that 90% of people use that as their first point of follow up – waste of time and definitely no TOMA.

Initial phone calls won’t do it – you are usually trying to sell something before any relationship has been established.

Given that most people say that networking and word-of-mouth is the best way for SME’s to build business it amazes me that 95% of them have absolutely no system for doing so!

Start building relationships using a sure fire system so that you create TOMA and stand out from the crowd!

 

The biggest number wins!

It’s interesting to see people at a networking function- of any kind – and watch their networking style. There are several distinct types!

1. The “experienced” – he or she looks calm and obviously has come with a plan. They probably approach no more than five people yet have a meaningful exchange with each of the five for at least 3-5 minutes.

2. The “newbie” – this is the person who is not quite sure what to do and probably stands with their back to the wall watching nervously what other people do. Unless someone at the function sees and approaches them they may well go away totally disheartened.

3. The “unconscious” – someone who has heard networking is a great way to build their business yet has no idea how to do that…. and hasn’t asked. This person may well approach and after exchanging cards begin to tell you how good they are and why you should buy.

4. The “shark” – and here we have someone who seems to think that the more cards they collect the better. No thought as to making meaningful connections. They will race around spending no more than 15-20 seconds with each person and go home quite happy with the 30-40 cards they collected.

Yet all of these people may well be wasting their time if they haven’t understood the real purpose of networking – and that is to turn a contact into a relationship.

Very few people I meet have a specific, step-by-step plan for turning their contacts into relationships.

Do you have a plan and process for turning contacts into relationships?

Mine is a simple 5-step process that I follow every time I make a contact – every time! It costs me no more than $2.50 and some time. Yet it realizes amazing results. Details of that plan will be the subject of my next blog!

Why is the Government ignoring SME’s in Australia?

In  recent article reported in the Economist and originally written for The New York Times, Catherine Rampell writes about the state of the small business in America.

Rampell is no lightweight journalist as this summary shows. She has written over 1450 articles for The New York Times economics blog, Economix!

And the 2007 OECD figures that Rampell quotes shine an interesting focus on Australia.

According to the OECD, approximately 94% of businesses in Australia have less than 10 employees and a further 3% have less than 50 employees. That translates into nearly 97% of Australian business being an SME.

Yet Governments generally in Australia do not have a senior minister in either State or Federal Parliaments who focusses on small business.

Here in Queensland if you try to find out who has any responsibility for small business you will need to go on a merry chase. Assuming you can find someone who knows, you will find a reference to the Minister for Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business who heads the “Queensland Small Business Advisory Council”. So small business is listed third behind two other areas and is only mentioned on an advisory council. This is despite the governments own site acknowledging that “There are over 386,000 small businesses state-wide which represents around 96.5% per cent of all Queensland businesses.“

Isn’t it about time that Governments started listening to the majority for once?

Yes it is important to involve “big business” yet to ignore nearly 97% of the market is unforgivable.

If you feel strongly about this write to your local state and federal member of parliament and lodge a protest.

Why not also subscribe to the Facebook Australian Small Business Page?

It is only by all SME’s speaking up that we can bring about change!

How responsive and available are you?

Following through on a link in a Tweet from Michael Stewart of Jericho Technology, I was struck by the message on his blog. It simply said that if I wanted to make contact he would respond….. and within 24 hours!

WOW!

24 hours?

Come on!

With thousands of subscribers and probably hundreds of messages am I expected to believe that you will respond that promptly?

And better still, there in the text was his personal email address.

So at 6.15 last night I wrote to Mr Michael Stewart – he with the big promise – and complimented him on his blog and his attitude to people.

8 hours later there was his reply waiting for me when I woke up this morning!

Am I impressed – absolutely. Here is someone who understands people and has integrity! Here is someone I would be happy to recommend.

And I was reminded of B.L. Ochman’s blog article entitled “Don’t Call Us” where she highlights companies that don’t even have a phone number on their site. Some of them are phone companies! Talk about not being available.

So I wonder how available and responsive are you?

Do you always return phone calls and does your voicemail message say so?

Do you have a personal email address or are you “info@” or “sales@” so people have no idea who they are writing too?

Or are you putting a road block between you and your customers?

Are you smart with networking?

Smart phones have many features and quite a few benefits, yet they really shine when it comes to networking.

Looking at the facets of networking that make it the most effective way to meet people and start building business relationships and it is easy to see how the features of smart phones quickly become benefits.

So lets look at how that might work?

Firstly, you meet some one at a networking event and, after a short discussion, agree to exchange information. You can either exchange business cards and then laboriously type in all their details or, using an iPhone app called BUMP they are exchanged in an instant.

Next, having left the networking event you want to start the follow up process. You know that an email is too informal so you call up another iPhone app called Voice4Mail and instantly send a personalized voice message thanking them for their time and suggesting they keep in contact.

Now you want to create TOMA (top of mind awareness) – which email will never do – so you log into your SendOutCards account and create a personalised greeting card that arrives in their mailbox 5 days later.

By this stage in their mind you are the number one contact they have made!

Lastly, you phone them to make an appointment as part of your follow up process – you have one don’t you – and that, using your smartphone, can be done from almost anywhere.

In between times you have logged into Facebook and commented on a few posts, searched for your new contact in LinkedIN and asked to be connected, logged into Ecademy and written a short blog about a lesson you learnt from the speaker at the networking event – all of which has been pushed to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIN accounts in an instant….. and you haven’t even been near the computer in your office.

In fact, now you are seriously wondering whether you really need to upgrade the computer at all given all the things you can do from your smartphone.

And just as a sideline your networking has become so much more efficient that you really have created TOMA with all these new contacts. Very soon they are turning to you for advice and possibly the use of your services as a client.

Are you guilty of premature solicitation?

In the promotion of his new book “The Worlds Worst Networker” by my good friend Tim Houston, Leslie Taylor in Las Vegas asks this question – “are you guilty of premature solicitation”?

And like a great headline should, it caught my attention! Wow did it catch my attention! I had to re-read it while thinking “did she really say that”?

And therein lay two points to ponder.

1. Do you write attention getting headlines to all your articles, newsletters, FB posts, Twitter shares and any presentations you may give? Or would I run right past yours without giving them a second thought?

In the fast paced world of today we often have only split seconds to get someone’s attention so that they pay us attention.

2. Do you approach networking events with the aim of selling people on your idea or product? If so you are guilty of premature solicitation!

No-one likes being sold to yet most like to buy…. from someone they know and trust.

Premature solicitation bypasses all the social norms of relationship building and assumes that you are ready to buy. And in most cases we aren’t.

So I ask again…. “Are You Guilty of Premature Solicitation?”

 

Who do you want to meet?

At most business meetings where I speak one of the things I ask is “who do you want to meet?’.

What I am essentially saying is “if I could introduce you to a potential client that you currently don’t do business with – and would like to – who would it be?”

Amazingly, very few people have an answer!

They want more business which is why they are at the meeting in most cases yet can’t tell me who they want it from. So it will come as no surprise when I say “then I can’t help you!”

On LinkedIN I have over 2,000 1st level connections which lead to over 540,000 2nd level connections and over 11 million 3rd level connections. On Ecademy I have nearly 1,500 connections and my newsletter goes to 3,500 people in 17 countries. Do you think I may be able to help them? Absolutely. Yet less than 5% actually respond to that offer.

So my question of you is do you know who you want to meet? 

In a similar vein many of the same people don’t ask, not because they don’t know who but because they “don’t like asking”. What????

Here is a very experienced and exceptionally well connected business (me) person offering to help – no strings attached – and you “don’t want to ask”!

It seems like you can’t help some people. Are you one of them?

Don’t let NEW distract you!

If you have done any  e-networking you may have been contacted about connecting on a new e-network called Referral Key. Their statement is … “using the power of communication to help small businesses build powerful referral networks online”.

They appear to say that we can be connected and so pass referrals to each other…. just because we are e-connected. In many cases the requests to be connected are coming from people that I barely know.

This raises the issue of what is the basis of a referral. In one simple word it is “TRUST”. I give referrals to someone because I know them and trust them. Stephen M R Covey stated it clearly in his book.

My current networks, both personal and electronic, will only receive a referral when I know them and trust them – that means I have a relationship with you. It is what I say when I talk about building million dollar relationships.

So should I take part in this new venture because it is new or because it is the fastest growing? For me the decision is NO. I will stay with the networks I know and trust and where I have real relationships.