Author of top selling book 'and death came third' on networking and public speaking Andy's article on 'Connecting is not enough' has some really good tips pn getting the best from networking. here is just a sample (Thanks Andy).
6 - They focus on the sale, not the relationship
Few people go to networking events to buy. So you have to ask yourself what the point is of trying to sell to people who aren't in buying mode. Think beyond the short-term gain and develop relationships. After all, wouldn't you prefer to get ten referrals from a long-term relationship than one sale from a passing contact?
RESOLUTION TIP - Go through your contact management system or business card file and pick ten people to whom you haven't spoken for a while. Re-establish contact and then stay in touch.
I suggest you read the rest too.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
A 'lesson for kids' we should all take note of....
This was wrongly attributed to Bill Gates but actuall was by educator Charles Sykes. It's an excerpt from his book "Dumbing Down our Kids". It is a list of eleven things you did not learn in school and directed at high school and college grads. Perhaps we should take a step back and listen to this as adults.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents'fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents'fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Free or Paid?
The question was asked the other day whether it is better to attend a free networking event or a paid one. In my opinion how much it costs isn't the point.
Networking is all about building long term relationships. It isn't about meeting somebody once and scaring them into doing business with you. Effective business networking means meeting the same people on a regular basis and establishing a relationship with them that potentially leads to business for you both. It probably won't be immediate - trust takes time and patience.
When you recommend another business part of your own reputation goes along with it. A poor recommendation reflects badly on you and you lose a little face. A good recommendation makes you look great and increases trust in you too. So wouldn't it make sense to know more about the person you are recommending?
It might no be possible to see the work of the person you recommend but if you have taken the time to get to know them then trust can be built in other ways.
Relationships should be two way, they should have trust in you before they pass you work. You should encourage this. Mostly recommendations are of the person not the business - you recommend the person you have built a relationship with rather than the business they are in. People buy people and trust is a major factor in their choice.
So the question of how much should you pay for networking is a mute point. Cost is immaterial as any networking event is what you make of it. If you network effectively you build relationships.
Networking is all about building long term relationships. It isn't about meeting somebody once and scaring them into doing business with you. Effective business networking means meeting the same people on a regular basis and establishing a relationship with them that potentially leads to business for you both. It probably won't be immediate - trust takes time and patience.
When you recommend another business part of your own reputation goes along with it. A poor recommendation reflects badly on you and you lose a little face. A good recommendation makes you look great and increases trust in you too. So wouldn't it make sense to know more about the person you are recommending?
It might no be possible to see the work of the person you recommend but if you have taken the time to get to know them then trust can be built in other ways.
Relationships should be two way, they should have trust in you before they pass you work. You should encourage this. Mostly recommendations are of the person not the business - you recommend the person you have built a relationship with rather than the business they are in. People buy people and trust is a major factor in their choice.
So the question of how much should you pay for networking is a mute point. Cost is immaterial as any networking event is what you make of it. If you network effectively you build relationships.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Another Scam Warning
In these tough times we might well be tempted to earn a quick bob or two outside our normal job. I received several emails today asking me to become a Mystery Shopper to earn myself a substantial amount of dollars. Being such an dis-trusting soul I automatically checked out the so called company proposing the offer.
Now while there lots of genuine companies offering jobs as Mystery Shoppers they never ask you for money up front or to do money transfers. This email seemed so plausible but Michael McDowell of WA Surveys is a con artist. Taking up this offer could leave you with a huge debt or worse still a court case. More information is freely available on the Internet.
So remember the golden rule: if it looks too good to be true then it will probably get you in trouble! Don't be taken in by scam emails - if it's a fabulous offer then look it up on the Internet and you'll probably find that it's a scam.
Now while there lots of genuine companies offering jobs as Mystery Shoppers they never ask you for money up front or to do money transfers. This email seemed so plausible but Michael McDowell of WA Surveys is a con artist. Taking up this offer could leave you with a huge debt or worse still a court case. More information is freely available on the Internet.
So remember the golden rule: if it looks too good to be true then it will probably get you in trouble! Don't be taken in by scam emails - if it's a fabulous offer then look it up on the Internet and you'll probably find that it's a scam.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a term most of you will have heard of but some of you may not be too clear on what it's all about.
To put it in VERY simple terms, it's about getting your website ranked highly on the search engines - that is appearing on the first page. It's actually a very complicated subject and companies charge anything from £40 per page to £3000 before they will even look at your site.
But there are a few simple things you can do yourself to aid in the Search Engine Ranking game! Get links back to your site! That means asking other websites and directories to link to your website. But you don't just want any old link. Some links score better 'points' than others, especially for Google!
So what links are best. You want links from complimentary sites - those websites who provide goods or services compatible with your own. For example you might sell organic make-up, so a link from an organic vegetable provider would be a good link but one from a mortgage advisor wouldn't be as powerful, earning less 'points'.
And try to get links that use your keywords as the link text rather than your web address - e.g. Organic Cosmetics instead of www.yournaturalbeautystore.com or Keel Soft Toys instead of www.greattoys4u.co.uk . If your keywords are part of you web address it isn't so bad but a text link is still better e.g. www.childrensbooks.co.uk has the right words but a link saying Children's Books would score more.
This is only a very small insight into improving your rankings. There are lots of other things to be done but hopefully it's given you something to think about. If you would like some more info then ask us at the next WBa meeting on June 10th.
To put it in VERY simple terms, it's about getting your website ranked highly on the search engines - that is appearing on the first page. It's actually a very complicated subject and companies charge anything from £40 per page to £3000 before they will even look at your site.
But there are a few simple things you can do yourself to aid in the Search Engine Ranking game! Get links back to your site! That means asking other websites and directories to link to your website. But you don't just want any old link. Some links score better 'points' than others, especially for Google!
So what links are best. You want links from complimentary sites - those websites who provide goods or services compatible with your own. For example you might sell organic make-up, so a link from an organic vegetable provider would be a good link but one from a mortgage advisor wouldn't be as powerful, earning less 'points'.
And try to get links that use your keywords as the link text rather than your web address - e.g. Organic Cosmetics instead of www.yournaturalbeautystore.com or Keel Soft Toys instead of www.greattoys4u.co.uk . If your keywords are part of you web address it isn't so bad but a text link is still better e.g. www.childrensbooks.co.uk has the right words but a link saying Children's Books would score more.
This is only a very small insight into improving your rankings. There are lots of other things to be done but hopefully it's given you something to think about. If you would like some more info then ask us at the next WBa meeting on June 10th.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Learning from Experience
I've just spent a long weekend in Holland with the TKD team. The travelling was hard - coach and ferry and a very long day. Having to collect other team members for the BTCB combined British squad meant travelling to Dover via Southampton!
The competition itself taught our team a few valuable lessons. Life isn't always fair, sometimes you know what the true outcome should have been but the formal results show different. The answer is simply to accept this and move on.
Everybody has off days when they don't perform their best. Just accept it, tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning.
Sometimes you can throw everything you have at your opponent and still get beaten. Time to evaluate what you are doing right and what can be improved on. Sometimes the competition is just better than you are. So change tactics and work to your strengths.
So for me it's time to step it up a gear and make sure I organise my time better. I can do everything I set my mind to achieve - I just need to schedule it better!
The competition itself taught our team a few valuable lessons. Life isn't always fair, sometimes you know what the true outcome should have been but the formal results show different. The answer is simply to accept this and move on.
Everybody has off days when they don't perform their best. Just accept it, tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning.
Sometimes you can throw everything you have at your opponent and still get beaten. Time to evaluate what you are doing right and what can be improved on. Sometimes the competition is just better than you are. So change tactics and work to your strengths.
So for me it's time to step it up a gear and make sure I organise my time better. I can do everything I set my mind to achieve - I just need to schedule it better!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Perfection!
Is it just that I'm a perfectionist or are some large companies guilty of doing a half hearted job just because they can. I was with a prospective client yesterday and he had an advert with a well known company. This company had access to the same information I had and a printed copy of the clients logo. Yet the logo they created for their advert bore a mere passing resemblance to the clients actual logo.
Now maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist but when I recreated the logo I made sure that the font (type face) was the closest I could get it to the original logo. I had taken a photo of one of the vans on my phone so I could colour match as near as possible. It took me about half an hour to create a top quality digital version of the logo for me to use in their new design. Wasn't difficult, just took time.
But do some large companies get away with a poor quality job because they are a large company - or do they genuinely just not care!
Caring about your customers is a must in today's climate and showing it can make a difference between winning the business and having to pitch to a whole new client. Now which do you think is cheaper? A bit of really good customer service, going that extra bit to show you care? Or pitching to lots and lots of prospects and hoping to get at least some!
OK. Rant over for today!
Now maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist but when I recreated the logo I made sure that the font (type face) was the closest I could get it to the original logo. I had taken a photo of one of the vans on my phone so I could colour match as near as possible. It took me about half an hour to create a top quality digital version of the logo for me to use in their new design. Wasn't difficult, just took time.
But do some large companies get away with a poor quality job because they are a large company - or do they genuinely just not care!
Caring about your customers is a must in today's climate and showing it can make a difference between winning the business and having to pitch to a whole new client. Now which do you think is cheaper? A bit of really good customer service, going that extra bit to show you care? Or pitching to lots and lots of prospects and hoping to get at least some!
OK. Rant over for today!
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