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What’s the Weather Got to do with Networking?

Posted on 05/14/2008 by savvynet

Many consider discussing the weather to be appropriate small talk. Perhaps great stuff to spend 5 or 10 minutes talking about. Well, think again. When you spend a great deal of time talking about the weather, especially around here in Seattle, you are going to be doing a fair amount of complaining. And complaining is not a good thing to be doing when you are networking with other people.

Remember, networking is about building relationships with folks. It is about teaching people about what you do, who you serve, how you serve them, and why anyone should care about that. It is about creating the knowing, liking, and trusting that is so important to the growth of your business. It is quite more powerful and good for you and your business if you spend that same 5 or 10 minutes engaged in meaningful conversation. And what is meaningful conversation?

Meaningful conversation includes dialogue aimed at either learning more about another person and their business or sharing helpful information about yours. Meaningful conversation helps both parties to better understand the who, what, where, when, and why as it relates to your and their respective businesses.

Here are 5 “Feel Good Questions” from Endless Referrals by Bob Burg to help you get started on meaningful conversations:

“How did you get started in the Widget Business?”
Let them share their story with you while you actively listen
“What do you enjoy most about your profession?”
This is a question that elicits a good, positive feeling.
“What separates you and your company from the competition?”
Bob Burg says that this is a “permission to brag” question and one that most people really enjoy answering
“What advice would you give to someone just starting in the widget business?”
Give your new networking friend a chance to feel like a mentor by asking this question
“What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?”
We all have dreams, don’t we? What are their dreams? This one gives them permission to fantasize about the future.

Focus on asking questions and truly listening to the answers and you’ll find that folks tend to think that you are a great conversationalist … and great conversationalists don’t waste precious time talking about the weather!

Bob Burg is coming to the Greater Seattle area on June 10th to present a half day workshop called Endless Referrals Live Seattle. To learn more about the event go to www.endlessreferralsliveseattle.com

Posted in Business Networking, Networking, Starting Conversations | Comments Off

Things Not To Do When You Want Something from Someone

Posted on 05/05/2008 by savvynet

Let’s see if this approach makes sense to you.

Earlier today, I had a phone call from a woman who let me know that she would like to be considered to make a presentation to our eWomenNetwork chapter here in Bellevue. She is currently representing a local radio talk show and they want to tap into our network to get more people to attend their September event and she felt that speaking at one of our events would be the best way to spread the word about their program. She is hoping to get attendees and sponsors out of the deal.

And then she shared with me that while she has been aware of eWomenNetwork here locally for some time now, she hasn’t felt a need to participate or join in our events because our members are not her target market for her main business.

Oooops. Mental end of the discussion on my side of the conversation.

Would you like to know what went wrong here?

First, this person let me know that she operates from a taker mentality. She wants to come to speak at an eWN event so that she can get eWN members to sponsor her client’s event. Not one word was mentioned about what value she would be bringing to our members with her presentation.

Second, whether she knew it or not … she let me know that our members aren’t people that she would ordinarily spend time networking with.

Third, since she hasn’t been to one of our events, she doesn’t know how our events work and she wanted me to explain that to her.

How could this have been handled better?

Well, first, she could have done some research. If there is something you want, you need to do your own research. If you decide that someone is your target market and it is a networking group – heck you might want to actually attend an event and see how things work.

Had she ever been to one of our events, she would know that she would have to come from a place of giving. Networking is about building relationships first. The giving comes first and the getting comes later. With a giving mentality, she could have called with an idea of a presentation that would have offered value for our members.

And lastly, if you want someone to help you … don’t insult them. Telling me why she hasn’t taken time to learn about our network in the terms that she did reminds me of a story that my friend, Nancy Juetten, always tells.

Nancy says, “If you are trying to get a story about your business in the local newspaper, don’t call up the editor and tell him/her that you never read their newspaper but you want to have a story about your business featured in an upcoming edition.” That’s not a smart PR strategy!

So, the lesson is … if you want to speak at an event to get exposure for your business, do the following:

Research the organization where you want to speak
Go to an event as a guest to see if the culture is right for what you want to achieve
Craft your presentation so that you show value for the audience – what’s in it for them?
Be careful of what you say about the organization that you want to speak at
Craft your pitch to the decision maker in such a way that you show total respect for that person’s time and for the organization as well

Posted in Business Networking, First Impressions, Networking | Comments Off

The 2 minute Networker – Online

Posted on 05/01/2008 by savvynet

With all the interest lately in Social Networking, I’m finding that a lot of people are confused and overwhelmed with how to make time for this new fangled activity.

To help folks out, I’m recommending some easy 2 minute drills that you can do online to improve your connections with your network.

These ideas assume that you already have a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, My Space, Biznik, Zoodango, or any of the multitude of other Social Media sites out there on the internet. If you are on more than one of these (and you should be) just pick one to focus on for now. Put 2 minutes on your calendar for each day for a week and then get busy with some of these 2 minute drills.

Pick one of your “friends” and visit their blog. Read a recent post and then leave them a thoughtful & supportive comment. (No grandstanding and please avoid leaving the lame-ass quote like, “Great Post! Keep writing more like this.”) This helps your friend to know that someone (beside their mother) is actually reading their blog and your friend will appreciate your support of their efforts in the blogosphere. You’ll be on their radar because you put them on yours.
Seek out business people that you know in your face to face network who are also in your online network. If you have had a great experience with them in a business transaction or through an interaction, leave them a glowing recommendation (LinkedIn) or a compliment (Biznik). Third party testimonials are always a great way to help your friends and to help them build their reputation.
Go to Google and create a Google alert to track information that one of your friends would find interesting or helpful. Daily, when your alerts arrive in your inbox, check through them and then forward any pertinent info or articles to your networking buddy to let them know that you are thinking of them and have their back, so to speak.
Think of 2 people that you have met recently and how they might be able to connect up. Then send them both an email of introduction and let them know why you think that they need to know each other. It’s very easy to do. And they will both appreciate that you are thinking about how to help them grow their connections.

If you can make the time each day to devote 2 minutes to Social Networking in this way, you’ll find that pretty soon you can easily do 5 minutes a day. When you get the hang of one Social Network, it will be time to add one more. Start the process all over again. Just pick one thing that you enjoy doing for yourself and your network and you’ll find that people will notice your efforts at making them feel important. And that’s what building relationships is all about. You make yourself memorable by making other people feel noticed and appreciated.

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Moving Too Fast Actually Kills Your Networking

Posted on 04/25/2008 by savvynet

Too many times, people rush in for the sale, and they end up not only losing the sale but losing the connection as well.
Here’s a recent email that I received:

“For the 2nd time in a month, I have received a call from someone who
attended a networking luncheon who called to “sell their wares”. I never
asked them to contact me. I know I should just let them know that this is
not a welcome call but I am uncomfortable doing so since I don’t want to
“burn a bridge” for my own potential business.”

This person continued by asking me if I had any suggestions on how to deal with this uncomfortable situation.

Before I could answer, I needed clarification, so I wrote back,

“Is it the same person who is contacting you twice in 1 month … or is it 2 different people?”

Turns out, it was 2 different people from 2 different events.

So here was my reply.

“As you’ve mentioned in your email, you want to keep the lines
open in case there is a potential need for this person to use your
services. If that is truly the case and this person is someone that
you would want to do business with eventually, you could simply
let them know that you make it a policy to get to know people as
people before you show an interest in their products for yourself
or before you consider them for outbound referrals.

You can keep it light and professional. If they don’t want to take
time to build a relationship, then you just have to let them
go … in a kind way. As my good friend Barbara Jack always says,
Bless them and release them.”

But really, folks, I get this question at least once a week. This tells me that there are a lot of networkers out there behaving badly. And, in some cases, they are behaving this way because they don’t know better. Is some cases, they do know better … but they choose to go for the sale over building a relationship first anway.

Either way, please stop. You are burning your bridges BEFORE you’ve even begun to build them.

People do not like being sold to. Period. And if you are pushing for a sale just because you have someone’s card in your hand you are missing the point of networking.

The point of networking is to build mutually beneficial relationships with people. Key words in that sentence are MUTUALLY beneficial. If your need to make a sale is that prevalent, please just pick up the yellow pages and start making cold calls. At least that way, you won’t be creating bad word of mouth marketing for yourself.

And if you don’t believe that pushing your sales agenda too soon on your network can create bad karma for you, think about this. People talk. The person who wrote the email to me above … she has probably already warned at least 5 of her friends about you. So the very next time that you are at a networking event and people hesitate or refuse to give you their business card … just know that the word about you is out on the street. And, it’s not good.

Posted in Business Networking, Networking | Comments Off

3 Quick Tips for the Shy Networker

Posted on 04/24/2008 by savvynet

First, I’ve never been a shy person so this advice today is coming from a place of not knowing what shy people really experience. And the experience seems to be very different to each shy person that I meet. How do I know that a person that I’ve just met is part of the “shy community?” They tell me. That’s how.

Honestly, there is no way to know that a person is shy just by looking at them. Well, I guess that’s not totally true. If you see someone off in a corner all by themselves looking bewildered or forlorn, THAT might be a shy person. If you see someone looking like they are a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car, THAT might be a shy person. Additionally, those same people could just be either a) anti-social or b) xenophobic (fear of strangers) or c) agoraphobic (fear of embarrassment).

No matter what the underlying reason is for their behavior, shy people who actually show up at a networking event have taken a huge step forward and often need just a little bit of help from the rest of us. But first, here are 3 Quick Tips for the Shy Networkers among us:

Get a networking buddy to go with you to events until you can build up your confidence. Of course, you don’t want to be a shadow to your buddy and you don’t want to follow your buddy around like a lost puppy dog. What you do want is to have your networking buddy introduce you to people and help you get the conversation started. Once the introduction has been made and the conversation is underway, you need to participate in the discussion.
To be able to participate in the discussion, you have to have something to say. Suggested reading material would include any book on Small Talk, any book on networking (the grand daddy of them all: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie), current trade magazines, and your local business paper. Additionally, just know that people love to talk about themselves so the easiest way to carry on a conversation is to ask questions that indicate that you are interested in learning more about whomever you are talking with. In this way, you won’t have to talk about yourself much (which is something shy people usually are uncomfortable doing)(it’s about the fear of saying the wrong thing, or an embarrassing thing).
If you are shy, try volunteering. Work at the registration table. Act as a greeter. Find ways to be busy and take your mind off of yourself. When you can focus on helping other people, you won’t have time to be worried about what others are thinking of you. A little secret here: Other people aren’t thinking of you … they are busy thinking about themselves and you can join them in that endeavor by keeping the focus on them which makes them happy and makes you happy as well!
OK, yes, I can count this is 4 tips when I said I was going to give 3 … If you are shy, seriously – you are the only one who knows that (and the people you tell, of course.) So, why not tell yourself (and show them) a different story? Every morning when you wake up, it is a new day. You can be a new you. You can attend an event and act confidently. You can act like you are the host. You can act like you are worth talking to and you might just be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to feel comfortable in your own skin!

For those of us who aren’t shy, we can help our shy friends by acting as a conduit to connections. We can take an extra moment to make an introduction … to help get a conversation going … to open up the circle and invite a stranger in. It might be out of our realm to totally understand what a shy person feels AND it is certainly within our power to help guide them to feel like they are a part of the discussion rather than apart from the discussion!

Posted in First Impressions, Networking | Comments Off

Social Media: All the rage – here’s how to engage

Posted on 04/21/2008 by savvynet

Well, you can’t really look anywhere on the internet right now without getting caught up in the Social Media explosion. But with all the options out there, how do you decide where to dip your toe in the water? With only so much time in the day, how do you know where to engage in Social Media? And how do you know if it will have an impact on your bottom line and ultimately help you to grow your business?

Even the Internet Gurus are giving conflicting information on this one so I figured I might as well weigh in with my 2 cents worth.

First, Social Media is one of many tools that are in your marketing tool box. So, just as with all the other tools that are at your finger tips, you must decide to use the ones that you are most comfortable with and the ones that are most likely to spread your information around like wild fire.

Social Media is a lot like networking in that you need to know what you want the outcome to be … before you can determine where you will put in your best time and effort and involvement.

Do you want to build better and stronger face to face relationships in your own backyard? Then you might want to consider localized online networks such as Biznik or create your own on NING.

Do you want to spread your influence further around the internet and make Business contacts in other cities? Then perhaps LinkedIN, Zoodango, or Biznik would better serve your needs. And you can always go on NING and search for a group that suits your niche or expertise.

There is a certain amount of Social Networking fatigue that many are beginning to feel as they are overwhelmed with the choices. It seems that with every new day there are more Social Networks popping up and people are inviting you to join them there.

Here are a few suggestions:

Join the networks where your current clients are already hanging out. This will give you greater visibility (as long as you participate) and will help to keep you “top of mind” with your target audience. And it will help you to keep up on what is happening in their lives as well.
Join the networks where your future clients are hanging out. For the same reasons as above, as long as you participate, you will begin to build awareness of yourself and your brand/product/service. And, it gives you an easy way to learn more about your prospective clients through their visibility (no stalking allowed)
Wherever you join, put up a proper photo of yourself and represent your business in your profile in a professional manner.
Wherever you join, make sure you add value to the conversations that are taking place. Social networks are typically highly intolerant of aggressive self promotion and mildly intolerant of mild self promotion.
Wherever you join, take time to build relationships … don’t be too eager.
Whatever you do – no spamming of any kind. You will do more damage in one moment of spamming than you can even begin to imagine. Just Don’t Do It.
Wherever you join, make a point to put it on your calendar as a marketing duty at least once a week (preferably twice a week) to show up at that site and manage your profile, your posts, etc.

You can have your profile put up on all the Social Media sites by various services on the internet. But what good does that do you if you don’t show up in person (at the site) to add your personality to the discussion. That’s why they are called SOCIAL sites. It’s about the interaction.

Interesting thing about these three words: Introduction, interaction, transaction. They all end in “action” and they are the natural route that new clients take to get to know you and your business/products/services. They are introduced to you through your website, your blog, your profile on social sites, articles that you have written, your networking efforts. Then they interact with you by commenting on your blog, downloading info from your website, leaving info for you at your Facebook site, or following you on Twitter. And finally, they are ready to engage with you and do business which is the transaction stage of the process.

Engage to engage!

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What I’m reading – to improve my Business Networking Skills

Posted on 04/16/2008 by savvynet

I’ve been tagged by Almostgotit of AlmostGotIt.com with a new blogging meme.

The Rules:

Provide a list of the books you’re currently reading.
Pick up the nearest book, and open it to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence, and post the next three sentences.
Tag 3-5 more people by posting comments on their blogs.
Link back to the person who tagged you. (It’s nice to leave them a comment, too!)

The Books:

Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz
How Smart Companies Get People Talking – This is a book filled with great ideas to get people talking about your business or your product/service. It drills down to the basics and… goodness knows that many of us need to know the basics. I would highly recommend this book for business people who want to empower their business networking by creating strategic word of mouth!
Your Attention Please by Paul B. Brown and Alison Davis
How to appeal to today’s distracted, disinterested, disengaged, disenchanted, and busy audiences. Another great book for figuring out how to get your message across in a crowded and frenzied world filled with too many messages and too much noise. I have flagged about 40 pages in this book for ideas to go back and read again.
the power of kindness by Piero Ferrucci
This book is so full of warm and fuzzy ideas that it really gets you thinking about how basic and easy it is to be kind … when we can let our egos step aside and let empathy and compassion rule our brains. A must read for everyone on the planet.

Here is the quote from page 123 of Word of Mouth Marketing:

(These great email tricks are also worth a try) Tell reader NOT to forward the message. Works every time. My most-forwarded messages all start with the phrase “PRIVATE: DO NOT FORWARD.”

The Tags:

Betsy at Targeted Coaching for Women (because she’s got a great sense of humor and lots of Know how)
Karen at Working Girl (She’s been working so hard on her book which is almost ready to go to the publisher)
Nancy at Publici-Tea (because she always has PR brewing for you!)

Posted in Business Networking, Networking | Comments Off

Business Networking and Selling

Posted on 04/16/2008 by savvynet

When you go out to a networking event, there is only one thing that you should be selling. Let there be no mystery about this. That one thing you should be selling is you. Not your product. Not your service. Just you.

Networking provides you a platform to build relationships. Most folks don’t like to be around pushy salespeople but they do enjoy being around friendly, interesting, positive people. Relationships take time, they take energy, patience, committment, and did I mention time? Just like in your personal relationships, your business networking relationships will prosper when you give them the proper attention.

Make the time to get to know the people you are networking with and let them get to know you as well. As soon as people begin to know you, like you, and trust you they will become advocates for you. And advocates are the best kind of marketing you can have for putting word of mouth marketing to work for you. I’m sure you’ve heard, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I’m convinced that it really is more like, “It’s not what you know, it’s what you show” and “It’s not WHO you know but rather WHO knows you, remembers you, and tells others about you” THAT is your best sales tool!

Posted in Business Networking, Networking | Comments Off

What’s My Line is not a good Networking Strategy

Posted on 04/10/2008 by savvynet

Networking is partially about creating Word of Mouth traffic about your business, product, or service. Yet, so many people are vague or unfocused in their personal marketing messages (AKA Elevator Speech) that I sometimes feel like I’m a panelist on “What’s My Line.”

I know that I’m showing my age here when I say that I used to watch this show on Sunday’s with my family when I was a child. This was an early TV game show that was actually one of the longest running game shows on TV. There were 4 panelists and during each show they would try to guess what the occupation of the guest was by asking lots of questions. The point was to try to stump the panelists and if you did, you would win $50.00. It was never about the money (even though $50.00 was a fair amount of money back in the 1950’s) it was about the witty banter of the panelists as they tried to figure out what the guest did. They even had mystery guests (usually movie stars or sports personalities) where the panelists were blindfolded and tried to guess who the mystery guest was based on occupational clues and the typical questions and answers. Steve Allen, one of the early panelists, is partly famous for coming up with the question, “So, is it bigger than a bread box?” as one of the ways to clarify the scope of the product or service that a guest provided.

So, take it from me, if someone ends up asking you, “is it bigger than a bread box?” you are not being clear enough about what it is that you do!

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you are sharing information about your business with others:

Keep it simple – please leave the jargon and technical talk out of it. Paint a picture of what you do that is easy to understand and easy to repeat to others. That way, I’ll be sure to know that I can help spread the word about what you do. If I’m not sure … or I can’t explain what you do, I can promise you that I won’t be creating Word of Mouth happy soundbites for you.
Take a virtual energy bar before you go to any event. Or do something to lift your energy! If you are bored about what you are talking about, guess what? So am I. On the flip side of that, if you are typically bouncing off the walls, you might want to bring it down a notch so the rest of us can actually hear your message and not be distracted by the thumping of your puppy tail!
When someone asks you a question about your business, it means that they are interested. Don’t answer in limited one word ways that stifle the conversation. A sentence or two is a beautiful thing. An epic is overwhelming and often uninformative due to the rambling that can and often does set in especially when you talk too long. Just re-read that sentence if you don’t know what I mean.
Don’t be coy and make us work too hard to figure out what it is that you do. Be direct and make it easy for us to either decide to do business with you ourselves … or to refer others to you who we think would be a good match.
Make some time to practice what you are going to say about your business. Really think it through and know what your important sound bites are to get a conversation going. Then get out there and share your message with the world!

On the show, What’s My Line, the whole point was to try to stump the panel. The guest always won the prize if he or she could manage to make it through the allotted time without disclosing the nature of their business.

Please make your networking strategy one of full disclosure. The prize will be more business and more clients for you. And isn’t that what just about everybody wants?

Posted in Building Trust, First Impressions, Networking, Starting Conversations | Comments Off

Networking and Word of Mouth Marketing

Posted on 04/07/2008 by savvynet

Networking is not about selling your product or service in the now … or the short term. In fact, if you want to become a Savvy Networker, you will learn to educate your fellow networkers so that they can become willing and able walking talking billboards for you. When you do this consistently and frequently, you will create an army of advocates for you singing your praises to everyone they know.

Word of mouth marketing gets put into play AFTER people have grown to know, like, and trust you. So the majority of your time early on in your networking efforts should be spent in building relationships with people so that they can see and experience you as likeable and trustworthy.

Relationship building takes time, patience, and effort on your part. And, the time you make to help others get to know you better will be well worth the effort when the power and the buzz of word of mouth begins to take hold for you in any group.

When a trusted third party tells someone how wonderful you are – people tend to see that in a different light than if you were to tell them yourself. A third party endorsement carries much influential weight and will be much better received when it comes from someone who is known, liked, and trusted. Word of mouth marketing, in this way, paves the way for a “warmer” reaction when a sales call is actually put into play.

So, how do you get Word of Mouth Marketing working for you? You have to start, first and foremost, by building mutually beneficial relationships with people. Look for the win-win in your interacations. Find ways to be helpful and supportive to the folks you are building relationships with. Find ways to send them business referrals. Start spreading great word of mouth for others. People will talk favorably about you and your products or services whey they have been “wowed” by you. Here are 5 ways to get to WOW with your networking buddies.

Be curious about their business. Ask thoughtful questions and then LISTEN for the answers.
Ask them how you can help them to build their business
Look for ways to help them based on what they’ve said
Send them strong referrals and make connections for them whenever you can
Follow up with a friendly “thank you” whenever someone does something kind for you

WAIT JUST A MINUTE! You might be thinking, “Hey wait a minute, I thought this was about how I could get someone to start spreading good word of mouth about me … this sounds like I’m supposed to be doing that for other people!”

BINGO!

Do unto others as they would like to have done unto them … and in the universal karma of networking the same magic will happen for you. Go ahead and try it, what have you got to lose?

Posted in Building Trust, First Impressions, Networking | Comments Off

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