Archive for March, 2007

How to keep in regular contact with your network

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

How do you keep in touch with your network on a regular basis? How do you figure out whom to stay in touch with, and how often to connect with each person?

And how do you keep track of all this without getting overwhelmed?

Before I answer these questions, let me make a very important distinction: “Networking” is not the same as “keeping in touch” with people.

Don’t confuse the two!

You keep in touch with people for a variety of reasons. And networking may be one such reason.

For instance, you may keep in touch with a co-worker from a past job just because you like his or her company.

And one day, he or she may be able to help with a networking objective you have — such as, advise you about how to get the attention of the decision-maker within his or her current organization. (This, by the way, is a good example of integrating networking into your normal day.)

On the other hand, if your only reason to keep in touch with someone is for “networking” purposes, it can get tedious.

After all, what do you talk about, when you get together to “network” week after week? (This is why “networking” often fails.)

To avoid this problem and confusion, first clarify why you want to meet and make sure that both sides see the benefit of getting together. This is one simple way you can identify the “right” people to stay in touch with. (This is what we covered in Lesson 3 — remember Lesson 3?)

Then together you can decide how best to keep in touch (e.g. by phone, email, in-person, or a combination), how often to connect with each other, what to talk about when you do connect, and so on.

Once you’ve made these decisions, you can use software tools to automate many aspects of keeping in touch. This allows you to stay in regular contact — with the right people at the right frequency — without getting overwhelmed.

For instance, Cortege is one such tool. Take the guided tour of this product to see what I mean about using tools to streamline and automate keeping in touch.

By the way, if you decide to buy this product, you can get an additional 5% discount as an Effortless Networking member. To activate your discount, enter EFFORTLESS as the promotion code when you make your purchase.

Posted in Improving Effectiveness | 1 Comment »

The most common mistake in marketing

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Since many business owners use networking as a marketing strategy, here’s a guest article on the topic by Ken McCarthy, founder of The System.

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I see this mistake every day of the week.

It’s not just beginners who make it and believe me, I’ve made it too – and long after I should have known better.

If you want to know what the mistake is – and remember it so that you never make it yourself – the answer is in the question and staring you right in the face: “marketing.”

Marketing is not about creating products… licensing products…sourcing products… inventing products or anything related to products.

Marketing about bringing products to market.

The market…to market…marketing.

Market, market, market, market.

Not product, product, product.

Forgive me for being so darned emphatic, but…

Twice in the last seven days, I’ve had TWO different, very bright and accomplished marketing friends crow to me about the new products they’ve created or acquired the rights to sell.

I’m sorry, but I never get excited about products.

Well, that’s not strictly true, but it’s like this…

If I can’t clearly identify…

  • who the product is for…
  • why they can’t live without it…
  • how exactly I can reach these folks with a compelling marketing message…
  • and how the math works out so that delivering the product will make money…

Then, for all practical purposes, the idea of a”great product” has as much appeal to me as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Really.

I’ve known the agony of trying to sell something that lacks the above four criteria and I’ve witnessed it hundreds (thousands?) of times.

I’m like a shell-shocked emergency room physician. I just don’t want to see another car wreck.

So please, when it comes to products be calm, sober-minded and practical.

If you’re going to lose it with excitement over something, lose it over a product that meets my four marketing criteria:

  1. There is an identifiable market that needs (wants) it

  2. The market can’t live without it (it’s unique or uniquely presented)

  3. You can reach the people in the market economically (not cheaply, but economically) with a compelling marketing message

  4. When all the smoke clears and the box has moved from your shelf to your customers’ hands, you’ve made enough money to make the effort worth your while.

We call it “marketing” and not “producting” for a reason.

You focus has to be first, second and last on the market.

If there is a deficiency in any of my four criteria, run don’t walk away.

And where should you run to?

As you many already know, before every System, we put up a TON of practical, actionable marketing advice delivered by people who I believe have earned the right to be called among the world’s greatest Internet marketing experts.

What do we charge for these dozens of hours of consultations, executive briefings and teleseminars?

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

We make this available to you so you can start profiting right now and see, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that when it comes to tested, real world, cutting edge marketing advice, the System has exactly what you need to move your business forward.

As we approach System 2007 (it’s just a little more than a month away), we’ll start taking down the interviews.

For example, last night, we took down the entire System 2006 interview series.

Over twenty hours of high level interviews on every topic under the sun…Gone…door closed…no more.

Why do we do this?

Simple.

While I like to give all this stuff away for free, I know that ultimately “free” is not valued. It just isn’t. Nothing personal, no hard feelings, but when people get something for free, they just don’t value it.

So how do you give value to something that was once free?

You take it away…the old scarcity device.

It works.

So while we are giving away our interviews for free right now, it’s best to take full advantage of them now. As in right now because they’re not going to be around forever.

Starting Monday, March 19th, as we head into the final two weeks for early bird registration, I’ll be removing one interview per day.

I’ll always give you a heads up so you have a chance to grab it, but if you snooze, you lose…so make sure you keep watching your e-mail.

Speaking of snoozing or losing….

Have you registered for System 2007 yet?

Here’s three reasons why you might want to do it right now:

  1. Your only chance in 2007

    This is it for 2007. There won’t be another System Seminar for 14 months. If you miss this one, you’ll be wandering alone in the desert for a long time.

  2. We are selling out

    We have already sold out our room block at the hotel and the hotel is quickly approaching total sell out on all its rooms. We can’t manufacture places to stay so unless you want to sleep in your car in the parking lot, nail down your place before all the hotel’s rooms are gone.

  3. The System delivers

    You know it. Our grads know it. Our jealous competitors know it.

    No other Internet marketing training program in history has helped generate so many successful businesses.

    Our students’ success rate probably has to do with the fact that I’ve been researching, innovating and teaching this subject – Internet marketing – for 14 years (try to find anyone else on earth who can say that.)

    And we’ve always been 100% education-oriented.

    Never a pitch fest. Never a come on for something else.

    When you buy a seminar from us, you get a seminar.

One more bonus reason to register now:

Save $700 off your tuition…

That’s enough to pay your air fare from most locations *and* your room and meals.

Not bad.

But you have to take advantage *before* April 1 when tuition hits $2,995.00.

All the info you need is here.

Best,

Ken

P.S. Did you know that the System offers a 100% total satisfaction guarantee?

If you attend the System and at the end of the sessions on Saturday night, you’re not totally blown away by the quality of what you’re receiving, we will cheerfully and with no hard feelings refund your tuition 100%.

Now, please don’t come as a sight seer or with the intention of ripping us off, but if you attend System 2007 in good faith and feel we’ve failed to deliver on our promises, then we really don’t want your money.

P.P.S. If you’re in a tough spot and just can’t make it this year, for goodness sakes please take advantage of our teleseminars.

My guests and I are not holding anything back on these calls.

There’s more good stuff in our free material than in programs people are charging thousands of dollars for. Use it! When you do, I know it will make the difference for you and you’ll be catching up with us next time.

Posted in Getting Results, Improving Effectiveness | No Comments »

Can we get together for coffee?

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

A small cup of coffee, photo by Julius Schorzman
Photo by Julius Schorzman

How many cups of coffee do you need to cultivate a networking contact? Here is a comment from a reader, and my response to it:

“[My biggest challenge is] following up after the initial meeting, and another follow-up after the first coffee/drink, and eventually developing this new contact as a longer term network contact.

People are busy, and after the first chat, it sometimes seems like we may not have more to talk about later.”

That’s absolutely correct.

If after the first (or second) chat, there seems nothing more to talk about, that’s a red flag — don’t ignore it!

It is very possible that you don’t have any mutual interest. (After all, you don’t become close friends with everyone you meet. The same is true in the business context.)

In fact, that is the purpose of the initial conversation — to find out whether or not you and the other person share a common interest.

The common interest may be exchanging leads and referrals, it may be a product or service that one of you wants to sell that the other may want to buy, or it may be something else.

So when you get together for that initial cup of coffee, be clear about what you want to get out of that conversation or meeting. In other words:

  • Why are you getting together? To talk about what?

  • How will you recognize whether this is a relationship you want to develop further?

  • How will you share this information with the other person?

  • What will you do if only one of you is interested in further developing the relationship? (Hint: there are infinite shades of gray between “yes” and “no” — if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor.)

Pay close attention during this initial conversation.

If you suspect that there’s no common interest to build the relationship, decide carefully how you want to proceed.

More on this topic is covered in the Effortless Networking self-coaching program (module 3).

Your time, energy and money are valuable resources — use them wisely.

Posted in Improving Effectiveness, Networking Conversations | No Comments »

Are you a parrot?

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

parrot

I heard about a “trick” recently for keeping conversations going: repeat key words and phrases like a parrot.

In other words, if the person you’re talking with says, “I am a mortgage broker”, you say “mortgage broker?”

And that leads the mortgage broker to automatically elaborate on “mortage brokerage”.

I laughed out aloud when I heard this — because I could see it working. In fact, I use a version of this when I talk with my 3-year old.

However, 2 things bothered me:

  1. First, the fact that this was framed as a “trick”.

    (Of course, if you’re a parrot, this would count as one of your tricks. But if you’re reading this, I suspect you’re not — a parrot, that is!)

    This is not a trick — not if you’re choose with care what key words or phrases to repeat.

    And it is definitely not a trick if you actually listen to the answers.

  2. Second, the suggested use for this approach was for those situations when you don’t have anything to say to keep a conversation going.

    Why would you want to prolong a conversation that didn’t engage you enough to stimulate a genuine response?

    My recommendation would be to use this approach in conversations where you truly want to find out more about the other person.

    And I would suggest you use this approach to practice listening (instead of talking — which most of us tend to want to do).

So go ahead and learn from a parrot — or from any other source for that matter. (The world around us is filled with “teachers”.) Just remember to use what you learn like a human!

Posted in Getting Results, Networking Conversations | 3 Comments »