Posts Tagged ‘Networking’

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Pain Relief = Value Statement

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Yesterday I wrote how to identify the pain your product or service can relieve. Today I want to talk about how you can turn that knowledge into a value statement for your business.

Remember that we don’t buy a product. We buy the solution to a problem or a value that your service brings to us. It’s not enough to say you have a great product or service. You have to tie that back to us and what’s in it for us. That’s where your value statement or unique selling proposition comes in.

By the way, saying your product is #1 in your industry doesn’t work. I wrote a post several months on why that is. I suggest you go back and review that post now. I’ll wait for you to come back.

Back now? Good. Now what can you say that will have meaning to your prospects? Go back to your client stories. You identified why your clients come to you and what solution you can offer. Look at those solutions and see if there is a way to quantify them.

Using me as an example again. Clients come to me because they are uncertain how to make social media work for them. I met with a prospect yesterday who had worked hard to learn the basics of Twitter. It took her a year to read about and learn best practices and build a basic following. I can get my clients up and running, with specific tactics for content and attracting followers, in about 3 months. So I can say I cut the learning curve in social media by more than in half. Or I can say that I can get someone up and running and seeing results with social media in 3 months instead of a year or more. There’s lots of ways I can state my value statement.

If someone is worried about getting into social media, that’s going to be a good value statement and will address their pain. If I’m talking to someone who is experienced in social media, it won’t be a value to them, but that’s okay. That company isn’t a good prospect for me. However, if they took longer than 3 months to get results, it might stick with them as a reason to refer me.

See how it works? Your value statement should be short. A sentence or two and customizable for your audience. Does it take work? Sure. But it’s worth it. Talking about your value is a lot more fun and effective than listing your services. And it makes you a lot more referrable.

Sound too hard? Give me a call, and I’ll help you out with it. Remember. I can get you results faster than if you do it yourself. Or, if you are in the DC area, attend my Netmasters meeting this month where we are going to go in-depth on this topic.

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From Pain to Relief

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Yesterday I gave you a road map for a networking marketing plan. Today, I want to start with the first destination of that map. Pain.

Nope, pain is not a very nice word, but if you are in sales, you are in the business of finding and relieving pain. By “sales” I am referring to you job seekers as well. You are selling yourself, and your skills are the “product” you have to relieve pain in an organization. So don’t think these posts won’t apply to you.

What do I mean by “pain” as it relates to networking and sales? Almost every purchase you make is (directly or indirectly) aimed at satisfying a need. Generally we recognize a need when we feel pain. I’m using “pain” very broadly here to describe what we feel when we’re dissatisfied with our current situation in some way. A few examples:

1. I recently bought a new iPhone because upgrading the OS on my old phone made it very slow. I was frustrated by the sluggish performance, and that was affecting my overall productivity. That was a a form of pain.

2. We buy sheets for our beds because our skin is a lot more comfortable if we’re not lying directly on the mattress.

3. People pay for my coaching because they don’t know or understand networking and social media. Lack of knowledge is often painful.

What about entertainment? Do we go to a movie or buy a book because of an unmet need? Ask a parent of an overactive 5-year old! The latest Disney film can buy that parent 90 minutes of relative peace. Yep, that’s pain relief!

If you’re uncomfortable with the word “pain,” and some are, then think of it in terms of unmet need. The basic question you need to ask yourself is what motivates a prospect to talk to you.

I’m not talking about “what” you sell. People don’t buy financial planning. They buy peace of mind, knowing that they will be able to retire and live in comfort instead of on the street. Too many people in sales focus on what they sell and not the intrinsic value of their product or service.

A good way to determine the need you meet is to think of some client stories. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why did the client come to me?
2. What did I offer the client?
3. What was the outcome?

I’ll use myself as an example. I recently worked with a small non-profit on their social media strategy. They came to me because they knew their target community was using social media, and they’d been told they needed to as well. They didn’t know which channels would be the right ones to attract and communicate with their target audience.

I worked with them to identify the right channels, craft an overall message strategy and decide how to manage their time so social media didn’t overwhelm them.

After about six weeks, they were getting inquiries from the right people and starting to build some partnership relationships through Twitter.

What was the pain? Lack of knowledge and fear of making the wrong decision. What did I provide? Knowledge and a sound strategy.

See how it works? Answer the questions above for your own business. Tomorrow we’re going to delve further into how you relieve pain and turn that into a value statement, which is going to be the key to communicating about your business.

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Networking Right Side Up

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Many people go about networking backwards. They say, “I need to meet people” and then run out to find an event. They meet people, do one to one meetings and perhaps even have a decent follow up system in place. But often they still don’t get the results they were looking for.

Why is that backwards? Isn’t networking about meeting new people and building relationships with them? Of course it is, but, like anything else in business, you need to network with a plan and purpose. Over the next few posts, I’m going to break networking planning down into discrete steps. Along the way, we’re going to talk about some concepts that will make you better at selling your product or service. How’s that for a two-fer?

I’ve said I don’t recommend starting with the “meeting people” part. So where do I think you need to start? Here’s the progression I recommend:

1. What pain points bring clients to you?

2. How do you relieve their pain? (otherwise known as your value proposition)

3. What are the other complementary (but not competing) businesses that are serving your ideal clients?

4. Where do those businesses network?

5. How can you add value to those businesses to motivate them to refer you?

6. How can you educate them to refer you?

If you can answer those six questions, you’ll have an excellent outline for a strategic networking marketing plan. You’ll be able to evaluate networking venues based on whether they are attracting either your target market or your strategic partners. You’ll have a message and value statement to help you get referrals and close clients. And finally, you and your strategic partners will know exactly how to help each other, which will lead to a stronger relationship. And more referrals!

Tomorrow we’ll start with pain points.

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Networking Is As Easy As A-B-C

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I’ve spoken at many points on this blog about identifying and being specific about who you need to meet. Now I’m going to pull it all together in an approach to getting introductions to specific people. For this, I suggest the A-B-C approach.

It uses the basic principle of “Six Degrees of Separation.” Of course, if you are a good networker, you seldom need as many as six steps to get to anyone. Envision a target with an “A” in the center. Around the “A” is another circle, labeled “B.” And around the “B” circle is a final circle, labeled “C.”

Looks kind of like a target, doesn't it?

These circles represent your contacts, both the ones you already know and the ones you want to know.

Look at your current contacts as your “C” contacts. These are the people who know, trust and are willing to make introductions on your behalf.

Then decide on the specific person (or persons) you want to meet: an ideal client, a perfect referral source, or the hiring manager at the company where you most want to work. These are your “A” contacts. Your goal is to leverage your C contacts to get introductions to your A contacts.

More than likely, you will need some intermediaries, and those are “B” contacts. B contacts are people who can introduce you to your A contacts. In some cases a C might also be an B, but often not. So you look at your C contacts to determine which are most likely to get you a step closer to A.

If you use LinkedIn or a similar social networking site, you have probably done this without thinking about it in these terms. On LinkedIn, there are people who are one, two or three steps away from you. If you do a search and want an introduction to someone who is three steps away from you, you send a request for an introduction to your first level contact. If your contact trusts you enough to send it on, it gets forwarded to the second level contact. And hopefully that person sends it on to the person you really wanted to meet. LinkedIn was, in part, designed around this very A-B-C concept.

The same approach works in face to face networking. Here’s an example. Let’s say during the last election cycle, I had wanted to meet Hillary Clinton. Who do I know who might have gotten me a step closer to her? Well, I know the owner of a heating and air conditioner company who has done work for a former senator in my state. That former senator might have been able to introduce me to Ms. Clinton. So I would have called my contact and let him know whom I needed to meet and why. If I have a good relationship with him (and I do), he should have been willing to introduce me to the former senator. And if that meeting went well, the senator might have been able to introduce me to Ms. Clinton directly, or might have introduced me to another B contact who could. And so it goes. Within two or three meetings, I could have had a direct line to a presidential candidate.

The key is knowing exactly who you want to meet and knowing your current contacts well enough to step your way to those ideal contacts. The last ingredient is trust. Without a certain level of trust, your contacts aren’t going to be willing to pass on your requests for introductions.

The system really does work. I was teaching a seminar on this topic, and I asked the participants to raise their hands if they had a specific person they wanted to meet. I chose a participant at random and told her that the people in this room were, for the moment, her C contacts. I asked who she wanted to meet. She said she wanted to meet a decision-maker at Marriott corporation. I turned to the room and asked if anyone could be her “B.” Several people raised their hands. Totally random group of people, and the system still worked.

It sounds basic, but networking really can be that simple. So who is your “A” contact? Maybe we know the ideal “B” contact to get you there.

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Context, Context, Context

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

For real estate, it’s Location, Location, Location. But not in networking.

If you are active in your networking, you are probably meeting a lot of people. And if you are meeting good people, they are also meeting a lot of people.

So you need to give us some context when you follow up with us.

I recently received an email that I almost deleted as spam. It thanked me for taking time meeting with this person and had a brochure as an attachment. I didn’t remember meeting with this person, and the brochure was aimed at someone in an industry with little relevance to me.

I decided to email back and ask for context. Good thing I did, because it turned out that he had been a participant at a workshop I’d been invited to speak at, and he might want to use my services in the future.

From spam to prospect just like that.

He could have saved much confusion by including where we’d met in the initial email. I still might not have remembered him (even after he gave me context, I don’t remember which audience member he’d been),but at least I wouldn’t have initially assumed the email was spam.

It doesn’t take much time to add where you met someone and, perhaps, briefly what you might have discussed. It’s good manners, gives us context and makes us more likely to return your email, phone call, or tweet.

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Referral Education. Or How to Get Referrals From Anyone.

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Yesterday I wrote about deciding on what networking group to join based on the networking ability of the group members. But what if you find a group you like, want to join them, and they aren’t very savvy about referring your business?

You’ll need to systematically educate them. Which isn’t a bad thing. It will force you to hone your message and clearly define who is a good referral. Which might make you better at selling your product or service. Not bad, eh?

I’ve written a lot of article on elevator speeches, and it might be a good idea to review them. Just search on “elevator speech” on my blog home page.

Stories are going to be key to educating your audience. You’re going to need to look at your client list and come up with your best stories. Here’s what you’re looking for:

Problem
Solution
Outcome

If you can come up with three or four good examples that fit that format, you’re well on the way. Of course, you’ll work those stories into your elevator speech, but you’re going to need to use them in one on one meetings as well.

I’d suggest you mention in your meeting that your business can be tough to refer. Yes, there’s a danger in putting that idea into someone’s head, but I think it’s offset by the fact that they are probably already thinking, “I have no idea how to refer you.” Address what they are already thinking, and you’ve won half the battle.

Then pull out your stories. Go through the two that are most likely to be relevant to the person with whom you are meeting. Walk through why those clients needed you and how you were able to help.

Tie those stories to possible industries the other person might be familiar with. Give triggers. Ask the person to look or listen for certain cues. Then give them some specific ways they could start a conversation around your business.

Is that a lot of work? Yes, but it will be worth it. Of course, you need to give the other person equal time and attention. The more you are willing and able to refer others, the more likely they are to refer you.

Anyone have a particularly difficult business to refer? Tell us about it in the comments, and let’s see if we can’t help you out.

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I Won’t Use Your Service. How Can I Refer You?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

All last week I wrote about social media. Time for a change back to face to face networking for a few days.

I was meeting with someone last week who was thinking about joining a networking group, and she asked my advice. I knew the group well, and I said, “I don’t think it’s going to work for you. The people in that group aren’t going to need your services, and I think you’ll be frustrated.”

She very correctly called me on my statement and said, “But I thought the point was to work through them to their referrals, not make them clients.”

Of course I agree with her, but that wasn’t quite my point. As you network, you need to know your audience and your product or service. Some groups are made up of more savvy networkers than others. This group isn’t one of the savvy ones.

Some people can envision how they would refer someone, even if the service is something they will never use. For example, I personally have no use for someone who does corporate mediation. But I know the kinds of people who would need that service, and I can refer it.

Some people can’t make that leap. They are generally the smaller business owners who are new to the concept of business by referral. When they are still trying to get their message right to generate referrals and keep in mind easy to refer businesses, they aren’t quite able to get their heads around more complicated to refer businesses.

You need to keep this in mind when joining a networking group. Is your business something the members of the group will understand and use, even if they don’t use you? If so, you’ll have an easy time educating them on how to refer you. If not, you’ll have a bigger challenge.

Am I saying you shouldn’t join such a group? No, I’m just warning you that you’ll have to work harder than say, someone who sells gift baskets. Everyone can see how to refer that business. Everyone may not instantly see how to refer you.

That’s the “bad news.” The good news is that tomorrow I’m going to write about how you can educate anyone about how to refer your business, even if you fall into the “hard to refer” category.

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Social Media Roles: Networker

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

The last two days, I wrote about roles that would be good for fairly small business owners and sales people in particular professions. Today, I’m heading in a slightly different direction.

What if your goal in social media is to meet cool people and build relationships with them? Don’t laugh. I have a client who told me that was his goal, so we’re working toward that.

Traditional networking can be done effectively through social media. Choosing the right channels can extend your reach more easily than can face to face networking, and social media can be used to maintain relationships begun face to face.

Who would fall into this role? Job seekers are the most obvious. Owners of multi-level marketing businesses could also use this role effectively.

What are the best channels for the social media networker? Facebook and LinkedIn are the best, though Twitter could also be considered.

LinkedIn is the foundation channel for this role. Using LinkedIn, you can get a detailed view of someone’s contacts. Are you targeting a particular person? Use the Search function to see if you are connected in any way. Targeting an industry? Search again. Once you have found your target(s), request an introduction.

The Friend Finder and Search features of Facebook can do something similar, but they aren’t as powerful as LinkedIn’s.

Once you’ve found someone and been introduced, I’d suggest moving to another social media channel for building and maintaining the relationship. Twitter can be good for this because there’s no awkwardness about “friending” on Facebook. A new contact might not want that level of engagement but mutual following on Twitter allows for communication and staying in touch. If the relationship grows, moving to Facebook makes sense.

What about time management? Depending on the size of your network, the time commitment can be manageable. You’ll want to join a few targeted LinkedIn groups, keeps tabs on Facebook updates and monitor your Twitter stream with some regularity. A tool like Nutshell Mail, which sends updates from multiple channels to you via email might be all you’d need. As your network grows, upgrading to a tool like TweetDeck might be prudent.

Your “content” will mostly be conversation and perhaps promoting links. You’ll also want to post updates about what you are doing, keeping them professional and pertinent. If you need help, especially with finding a job, ask for it. You’d be surprised how often requests for help finding a job get forwarded.

If you are a multi-level marketer, how do you get business out of this? Remember that we refer people we know, like and trust. Your social media activities will lead (I hope!) to all three of those. Sprinkle occasional mentions of your ideal clients in your stream, and if you’ve done it right, you’ll get referrals.

Sound like you? Great. Now, you have a place to start.

Are you a business looking to build and maintain a brand? The next two days are for you.

I’d love some feedback on this series. I’ve not seen anyone in the social media sphere writing about roles quite this way. Is it working for you?

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Networking: When the Magic Has Died

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

A friend of mine, Jason Alba of Jibber Jobber wrote an excellent post earlier this week on when to leave a networking group. His points were so good that I asked if I could reprint it here.

Take it away, Jason:

I’m not talking about when it’s time to leave a networking event, I’m talking about permanently leaving a group you are in.

A few years ago I networked in a Yahoo Group (an excellent place to network). This group was run by someone with a beautiful smile and a seemingly helpful persona, but I had a different experience than most.

My contributions to this Yahoo Group, with a lot of job seekers, were sincere and helpful. When someone asked a question that I could (or should) answer, I spent a fair amount of time constructing a response that was encouraging and had enough meat that the person would be able to move on.

At least half of my messages never made it to the group. They were flat out rejected by the moderator, who sometimes would construct her own response that had a lot of similarities to my response.

One time, she responded saying that it was HER group, not the Jason Alba group…. by this time I was just about done having all of my free help and thoughts slapped down.

I didn’t want to leave the group for many reasons. This was a large group that was very active and I got as much value as I put into the group (and I put a lot of value into the group). I struggled with leaving for months, and finally I did.

I left the group. I left the opportunity to be known, be helpful, keep my ear to the ground on issues, and get reactions to my ideas.

I was saddened to get to that point, but something unexpected happened.

When I left the group I became liberated. I was elated. Seriously, I was so happy to be out of the control of the group owner, and not have to worry about my contributions being slapped down more than 50% of the time.

No one really knows why I left… I STILL get emails from people that were on that group, wondering where I went. I do wish I could contribute to that group… but being free has been so liberating.

I know some of you go to network events, or network online in certain groups, where you feel quite unappreciated. Perhaps what you bring to the table is undervalued and you are essentially treated poorly (perhaps even abused).

Here’s my advice: leave.

Move on.

Leave the group.

Don’t stay for the others… they’ll eventually figure it out for themselves.

There are two reasons to participate in networking:

* To Give…. of your time, ideas, encouragement, etc.
* To Get…. moral support, ideas, encouragement, etc.

If there comes a time when the management of the group, or event, thinks that you are a threat, it’s better to go somewhere else and do what you do best than to stay there.

You’ll know when it’s time… when the stress weighs on you and you wonder why they keep doing things a certain way (which is wrong) and you keep getting slapped down… it is time to move on.

There were several things I really liked in his post.

1. Networking in a Yahoo Group. Yep, a great place to network.

2. Why we network. To give and to get. He’s completely right, and if a group stops supporting either of those goals, it’s time to leave.

By the way, Jason has a superb on-line contact management system aimed at job seekers. But it can be used by anyone who needs a good contact management system designed for networkers. Check it out for yourself.

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Get Out of the Office!

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

I have a couple of clients who spend too much time in their home office and not enough time out meeting people. (You know who you are.) Obviously that’s not ideal from a networking perspective, but it has another, more insidious effect.

Most people struggle, to one extent or another, with self image. The people we spend time with act as a mirror for us. When the person we spend time with is ourselves, we reinforce our less-than-ideal self impression. This often leads to a feeling of futility about our efforts.

Other people seldom see the faults we see in ourselves. Other people tend to see us as better than we see ourselves, and we need that.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling frustration with my social media efforts. Then I met with a new client, and I was able to give him some ideas. We had a great strategy session, and I walked away energized. I had some ideas to try too, but more importantly, my client reinforced to me that I do know what I’m doing. I needed to see myself through the eyes of another.

How do you view yourself right now? If you’re frustrated, how much time have you spent by yourself? If you’re like my clients, get out and meet someone. Both of you can view each other through different eyes and walk away better for it.

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