On Friday I was at an all-day trade show. It was good for me, and I’ve got some promising leads to follow up with. I exhibited at the same event last year, and I saw so many mistakes, I blogged about it.
Guess what? I saw the same mistakes this year. I think it’s time to link back to my trade show post from last year. Check it out. I’d hate for you to make the same mistakes.
Anything to add to the list?
Chris Cooks is one of the best networkers I know. Most of the people I meet at events are either small business owners or active job seekers. Chris is neither. He’s one of those rare individuals who is happily employed but still networks like crazy. Since I have been focusing this month on networking for job seekers, getting a guest post from Chris was a no brainer. Take it away, Chris.
When I first began attending networking events, I found myself often asked “Why are you here?” when whoever I was speaking with learned that:
* I was not looking for a job
* I was not hiring
* I was not in business development
* I did not own a company
My answer was, “I’m growing my professional network. My strategy is to have the air bags installed before impact.”
Being currently employed as a consultant with a local government contractor, I have to accept the possibility that something such as a funding cut or losing a contract could bring about my not having coverage. Although I may be content with the projects that I’m working on, I do not have the luxury of becoming complacent. So how does one keep from becoming too comfortable? The answer does not lie so much in an active versus a passive networking approach as it does in a proactive versus a reactive networking approach.
We all network, however, we are usually reactive instead of proactive. We tend to need some catalyst to become a proactive networker: the loss of a job, graduating from school, moving to a new area or needing a new client or project. Once the objective has been achieved, then we shut down the networking machine. I have been guilty of this myself in the past. It is very easy for contentment to morph into complacency.
Regardless of the urgency your current need to network, here are some steps to enable you to develop and maintain a proactive networking strategy.
Establish your base
Take an inventory of the people you know and the industries they are in. This is your base. Do not make the mistake of omitting people who may not be employed (stay-at-home parents, students, retirees, unemployed individuals). Remember, that people know people, who know people and your goal is to broaden your network of resources.
Expand your circle
How many of the people in your base can you connect with on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook? As you connect, find out who they know and attempt to gain introductions either virtually, through social media platforms, or in person. If someone does not use social media tools, obtain the standard contact information (phone numbers, email). Do not be afraid to reach out to people with whom you have lost regular contact.
Attend Events and/or join groups or associations
Find a few free or inexpensive networking events to attend. Also look into joining groups or associations in the industry that interests you. Are any of the people in your base attending events or members of associations? If so, ask to tag along. Are there any Meetup groups in your area? Check out both professional and social groups, both offer opportunities for networking.
Volunteer
Volunteering is a great way to network. Whether it is with the school system, or various non-profits, volunteering can provide an opportunity to interact with a cross section of people from varied backgrounds.
Connect People
As you become a proactive networker, you will begin to meet several people networking for a variety of reasons. Keep the networking needs of those you meet in mind and whenever possible, connect people who can be of assistance to one another. Share the resources that you have developed. You will find that the more you do this, the more others will do the same for you.
Conclusion
When I attend networking events, my goal is to meet people and to establish and grow my base of contacts before I need them. As a job seeker, once you have accomplished your goal and obtained the job, do not “shut down the machine,” merely reduce the intensity and alter the focus to connecting people. Continue to do the things outlined in the steps above to be a proactive networker and have your resources already in place the next time you need them.
Thanks, Chris. That’s excellent advice. By the way, Chris also tweets from @ngagedc. If you are in the DC metro area, follow that account also and learn about great low-cost or free networking events.
This month, much of my focus will be on job seekers. I just “celebrated” my seventh year anniversary of being laid off, and I wanted to honor the occasion by offering practical networking advice. This is a scary time of year to be unemployed, and I want to do my part to help out.
If you are in the DC area, on October 28, from 6-8 PM, I’m offering a free workshop on the topic. Follow the link for more information.
So you’ve been laid off. Or you think your job is in danger. Or you’re just unhappy in your current position. Where do you start?
First you need to organize your job search. It’s not enough to say “I need a new job.” You need a clear idea of what that job looks like. Otherwise your network won’t know how to help you. And trust me, we want to help. You just have to aim us in the right direction.
How do you organize a job search? Start with writing your ideal job description. You might not get everything you want, but it focuses your thinking. Sometimes, we take the first job that comes along, even if it’s not right. Having an ideal job description allows you to evaluate job offers against what you really want.
More importantly, it gives you a foundation for your research. Finding a job involves both talking to people and a lot of research. Once you know what you want to do, you research to find the job titles that match the description. You also research what companies are hiring people with those skills.
From your research, you have your target list of 5-8 companies that are hiring people like you. Now the real networking can begin.
I’ve been writing about strategic partners and how to add value to them. You’ve identified them and have a good message to attract them. Now, how do you find them?
1. Ask Your Network
That’s a good place to start. People in your network might be potential strategic partners or they network with them. Ask where else they network. You’ll find some new events or get a new perspective on an old event.
2. Look for Professional Organizations
If you are targeting particular professions, there are probably professional organizations which serve them. If you are looking for people in related professions (e.g. real estate), one organization might serve multiple professions. Many organizations have open events a couple of times a year. Those are your opportunity to meet a lot of different people in a particular industry or profession.
Be warned. Members of such organizations are accustomed to visitors coming to open events and looking to sell their services. Remember that your role at the event is to find referral partners, not customers. As long as you act accordingly, you’ll be welcomed where the sales-focused people will be politely (or not) ignored. Quickly review yesterday’s post on adding value to strategic partnerships for ideas.
3. Don’t Forget Social Media
Events and groups are often promoted through social media. If you are targeting a particular profession or industry, follow some influential local people. Look at what events they talk about. I’ve gone to an event because someone I followed on Twitter was going to be there, and I wanted to meet in person.
LinkedIn Groups or Yahoo! Groups are another good place to meet people. Look for a group dedicated to the industry you are targeting. Provide useful information and be a good group member. I just scored a connection to a local published author and writers’ group through a Yahoo! Group. I’m still bouncing about that!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
