Effortless Networking

Here is a good follow-on article to last week: you can use the concepts discussed here to get really clear about your networking objectives and figure out your strategies.

Right Tool for the Right Job: Six Different Ways to Get Your Business Known
By Kim Castle, BrandU®

If you’re like most people, you started out in your business with an idea of creating something, a dream of making lots of moola with it, and a desire to help people with it. You then toil to make this idea a reality by developing it, testing it, making it, and then… it sits. It’s only then do you realize that… your work hasn’t even begun yet. You have to get the word out about your business.

Without knowing how, you start grabbing at tactics like straws in great hope of causing a clamor of customers lining up at your door.

Taking action is great. BUT do you know what job really needs to be accomplished and the right tool to achieve it?

To make your action and business a success, here are the major ways to get your business word out, what they do, and what you should and should not expect from them. They are in order of the biggest bang for your buck.

1. Branding - Define Your Communication

Branding is the process of creating precise and pin-pointed communication of your business (product or service), the value for which it stands, and the feeling customers consistently get from it.

In addition to giving you clear communication of your business’ value and uniqueness, branding provides you a set of rules, a bible, to follow. It also enables all other methods to be united and at their most effective.

NOTE: Branding is NOT a conceptual practice. In fact, it’s the act of turning the concept of your business idea into a solid commerce-driven experience. Just think about the brands you buy everyday. Branding is easy to do, if you have a process to follow.

2. Marketing – Connect to Eye-balls

Marketing is the act of taking a specific product offering out to as many people as possible in a way that elicits their attention and makes them eager to buy. In establishing the frequency of delivery you make sure they see your offer over the hundreds of marketing messages they see everyday without tipping the scale so far they tune your business out.

There are 3 main types of marketing:

• Undifferentiated marketing, which assumes everyone is the same and aims a particular product at everyone. Sometimes referred to as a shotgun approach.
• Differentiated marketing, which aims the product at specific segments in the market. Often referred to as defining a target market.
• Concentrated marketing, when the message is aimed at just one small market. Often referred as finding a niche.

NOTE: Marketing does NOT define your business’ uniqueness, nor does it establish your credibility. Rather it is a set of systems based on a set of decisions. In order for your marketing to be it’s most effective, you have to have something solid to base those decisions on— your set of rules.

3. Public Relations - Enlist Big Mouths

PR is the art of influencing public opinion using the presentation of a client’s image, message, or product through exposure in the media.

Depending on how big you want your business to be (either in revenue, size, or impact), at some point you will want help in extending your reach and establishing credibility.

NOTE: The role of PR is NOT to define your business. Its action is to get the media’s assistance in amplifying what you have already defined. But you have to define it. Again, a set of rules is an invaluable asset. PR is a great way to assist with credibility. It should not be confused with publicity.

4. Advertising - Toot Your Horn

Advertising is the practice of creating specific campaigns to attract public attention to a product, service, or company. By means of paid announcements you affect perception or arouse consumer desire to make a purchase or take a particular action. Often this is done through the medias of radio, magazine, newspaper, or television. In fact, the media was invented as a vehicle of advertising.

While glamorous, advertising is often cost prohibitive for businesses just starting out. Without a significant long-term money and time commitment, it will prove unsuccessful and… painful.

NOTE: Advertising is NOT a quick fix way into the marketplace. Its action is to get attention and gain credibility by repeated exposure. Following a map will assure you are going in the right direction over the long haul.

5. Publicity – Make a Spectacle

Publicity is a tool of public relations focused on generating editorial media coverage for a company and/or its products, often done through press releases and community events. The best publicity causes a public commotion; often bad publicity gains more attention than good.

6. Promotions – Spread the Word

Promotions is the routine of getting your business seen. This is often accomplished by imprinting your logo on a pen, keychain, Frisbee or water bottle or by sponsoring specific events. Partnering with another business will spread out the costs as well as your reach.

Now that you truly understand the tools available to you and know the most beneficial order to proceed with them, you can rest assured that you can effectively get the word out about your business and have customers lining up at your door with moola in hand.

© Castle Montone, Limited

Author and Brand Visioneer, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to tap into the full power of their business— the power behind their brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™ go to www.whybrandu.com

“Experts” may tell you there’s a right way to network.

I disagree.

Just as in any other area of life, one size does not fit all. In fact, if you network in a way that doesn’t suit your personality, it won’t work.

For example, you may plan to regularly meet with someone then find yourself constantly canceling or rescheduling your appointments.

Or you may decide to attend business mixers and realize that you’re too self-conscious to connect with people there.

On the other hand, when you find a networking approach that truly fits with who you are, you’ll achieve your networking goals much more easily.

Further, when your networking goal is aligned with your networking approach, you’ll start getting remarkable results seemingly effortlessly.

So how do you do this?

1. Take a moment to notice how you naturally interact with people.

   You may find, for example, that you use email to stay connected with most people, but there are a few key people that you regularly talk to over the phone.

   Or that you enjoy throwing parties, where you can introduce new friends to old friends.

   Being aware of your personality and your preferences will help you to understand what networking environments and approaches are best for you.

2. Think about your networking objective.

   Do you want to generate more visibility for your business? Do you want to find joint venture opportunities? Do you want business leads?

   Networking to find a joint venture opportunity is very different from networking to get potential customers for your business.

   The techniques may be the same, but the approach, venue and conversations can be very different.

3. Consider different networking approaches

   For instance, you can network through organizations — such as, professional associations, Chamber of Commerce mixers, Leads groups, online networking forums, etc.

   Or you can schedule one-on-one meetings with specific people, whether in person, on the phone or online.

   Each has its pros and cons.

   And each serves a particular need very well.

   For instance, if you want to meet a lot of people in a particular industry quickly, going to an event sponsored by that professional association would be ideal. On the other hand, if you want to have an in-depth conversation about something, a private meeting would be better.

Once you have a sense of these 3 factors, you can mix and match them for best results.

For example, if you’re a business owner who prefers interacting with people one-on-one, who wants to generate more business through networking, and has a very busy schedule and limited free time, you might do the following:

• Find an appropriate event to attend so you can quickly meet a large number of people who may be good referral sources for you.
• Schedule follow-up meetings with only those who show an interest in partnering with you — and based on your mutual availability, of course.
• Use these meetings to define and build sound working relationships with each other.

This allows you to make the most of your limited time, leverage your personal preference, and meet your business networking goals.

I’d love to hear about how you’d combine these to fit your needs. So please share your comments below…

Here’s a comment I got from a reader last week:

“[My biggest challenge is] getting clientel.”

And interestingly, in the past few weeks, I have done business with at least 6 small businesses — all of whom said that they got the bulk of their business easily — through “word-of-mouth”.

In other words, most of their clients are referred to them by past clients.

Immediately I asked them whether I could interview them, so I could find out their story and the secret of their success!

Although they were interested, no one has followed through yet.

Could it be because they have too much business already and don’t want any more publicity? Perhaps they’re too busy with their clients and don’t have the time. Or maybe they don’t want to share their secret!

Well, I don’t really know.

So let me share the story of my experience as their customer instead:

We are in the process of buying a house. So we need a lot of different kinds of services to help with the home-buying process: a home inspection company, a lead inspector, a landscape designer, a window replacement specialist, a settlement company, and so on.

We found out about each of these services from our friends and colleagues (i.e. through word-of-mouth networking).

• When we asked people for recommendations for these services, we obviously asked people who had used that particular service themselves.
• So each service was referred to us by a past client, who was very happy with their work (and often, happy with the price as well).

Well, we’ve been very happy with each of these businesses, and would gladly recommend them to anyone who asks for our opinion.

By the way, you’ll be interested to know that a couple of times we were told NOT to hire certain companies. Clearly, these were dissatisfied clients!

The point of this story? Well, there are two questions to ponder, actually:

1. Are your clients or customers satisfied with your work? How can you tell?
2. Do they recommend you and your business to their friends and colleagues? What (if anything) can you do to encourage this?

Here’s an interesting question from a reader, which may be one that you share too:

“How [do I] impress them instantly, such that they can devote their precious time speaking with me alone, rather than splitting their time amongst those around?”

My response:

Listen to them with your full and undivided attention.

Don’t sell, persuade, advise, talk about yourself, etc.

When you DO talk, ask questions about the other person.

If you really want to impress someone and have them talk with only you, this is all you need to do!

Try it.

Now, here is my question for you:

What will you do with all the information you get from this conversation?

No, I don’t mean to be irritating or annoying! I do however want you to think why you might want to have someone speak with you all evening.

For another take on the same topic (about what NOT to do when trying to impress someone), click here.