Strange Networking Behaviour… A Mystery….. What Is With This Man??

I have to share a really strange story with you:

I keep on running into the same chap at almost every networking event I attend in a particular area lately (it’s been at four different events hosted by four different organisations).

I even have the misfortune of ALWAYS having him sit next to me at the breakfast / lunch / or dinner table. Why do I say “misfortune”? Well, apart from his name I know absolutely nothing about him. (And I only know his name because it’s on his name badge).

He will not say who he works for, what he does, or share anything constructive at all. When he does contribute to our conversations its only to say something really obscure or negative.
He does not carry business cards, and when I asked him at the last event how I would go about contacting him if I wanted to, all he said was “those who need to contact me know how to find me”…..

It’ not just me he is like this to. He gives the same pathetic lines to anyone who talks to him. So I really really need to understand what on earth makes him waste time attending these events in the first place? What value is he getting by networking ? And what value is he giving back? And how do I avoid having to sit next to him and waste my own time and opportunities again?

****
The plot thickens: I have even googled his name and can find nothing at all; so now I’m begining to wonder and imagine all sorts of conspiracy theories… like maybe he’s a stalker…. or perhaps a hit man and when he hears the ‘right’ kind of conversation at the table he hands a note saying “I can help you with your problem”….

Any ideas?

Are You Fishing in the Wrong Pond?

If you’ve been a subscriber of the Marketing Edge for a while, you no doubt recall my article in January about “Networking That Produces Results – How to Work That Room!”

Today I’m not going to focus on working the room, but on working the entire concept. I’ll be discussing three essential elements that absolutely have to be at the forefront of any networking that you do. I am taking it as a ‘given’ that you are in the professional services arena, are offering a premium service, and are not trying to be the cheapest provider in town.

1. Fish in the Right Pond

If you had set out to fish for Cod, would you take your tackle out on a barge on some English canal hoping for success? Likewise if you were aiming to catch Rainbow Trout would you set out on a deep sea vessel heading for the Atlantic? Of course not! You would have done your homework in advance, known where the highest concentration of your ‘target’ was, and set off to fish in those waters.

Networking should be no different. In order to get the highest return on your investment (that’s your time and money) you simply have to be doing your networking where your ideal prospects are.

There are a great many different networking organisations to choose from that you may feel overwhelmed by the choices. I wholeheartedly recommend that you take full advantage of attending as a visitor, as many times as the group allows, before making any commitment to join. Investigate, do your homework, and make sure that the fish you want to catch are swimming in that pond!

There is a school of thought that suggests it doesn’t matter where you network because networking is simply about meeting people and making connections. I totally disagree. Pure business sense and sheer economics mean that lots of low value connections, not turning into money, equals a high cost of conversion and low return on investment. It simply has to be about quality not quantity, which brings me nicely on to the next point:

2. Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thinly

To make a genuine success of your networking efforts and get tangible value out of it, it is imperative that you be an active, visible member of the group (or groups) to which you belong. This comes back to the quantity issue. Ask yourself: Can I be an active, visible, highly involved member of a whole host of different networking clubs? To get the most value out of my membership how much time would I have to dedicate to attending events? Over the course of a week or a month, how many hours am I spending at these events? How many work days does that equate to? Now the killer question: Do I have to compensate by catching up on work in the evenings and at weekends?

Hmmm.

Never forget that you have a business to run. Spending time and money in marketing efforts that get poor or wishy-washy results is going to have disastrous knock-on consequences. I’m not saying that your networking is getting poor results, but it introduces the third point.

3. Frequently Evaluate

If we keep doing the same things, we will keep getting the same results. That’s why it is crucial to frequently evaluate what we are doing and examine what results are being obtained from those efforts.

We do, of course, also need to factor in the cost of membership to all these clubs, plus any additional out of pocket extras like the breakfasts or lunches there. How does that fit in with your overall marketing budget? Can you think of ways to get more ‘bang for your buck’ by getting in front of your prospects in a more targeted way?

Many fish migrate to other waters during different seasons, or because of other changes in environmental factors. So too, do we need to frequently evaluate whether our ideal prospects are still swimming in the pond where we have cast our net.

Back on the issue of quality rather than quantity another area that demands close evaluation and scrutiny is that of the quality of business or referrals that are being obtained within the group. If the best referrals you are getting are names and numbers on a post-it note, they are likely to result in nothing more than a cold-call at best. Take an honest look at your conversion ratio: How many of these leads are being turned in to paying clients? How long does it take?

(A simple way to warm up a referral is to ask the referee what they know about the prospect and their needs, and then encourage them to make a warm introduction. It’s important that the approach is made by the person that the prospect knows and trusts. It can even be as straightforward as just arranging a phone call or exchange of emails between you and the prospect. Try this tip alone and see your conversion rates sky-rocket!)

You absolutely have to ensure that any networking you do fits in with your overall marketing strategy. (You do have one, right?) If your weekly commitment is turning into a glorified breakfast club or ladies tea-party it’s time to refocus, reprioritise, and re-evaluate what may be better uses of your time.

©Vanessa Deakin and Zee2A Limited 2008. Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph: Vanessa Deakin, Operations Director at Zee2A, is a Marketing Coach who works with Professional Service Executives frustrated and disappointed with their current growth rates, marketing efforts, and business profitability. Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes she helps them to skyrocket their results and break their own best records. To learn more, sign up for her e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit our website at www.zee2a.com

The ONE Thing Your Professional Services Business MUST Have!

Here’s a challenge: Do you know the ONE thing that separates the successful (including the obscenely successful, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates) from the also-rans? Think you do? Perhaps then you also know that this same ONE thing makes more of a difference than pretty much anything else to ensure that your small business will one day become a big business, rather than a failure statistic? Anyone can do it, and it doesn’t require special skills, proprietary tools or expensive resources.

Shall I put you out of your misery? The ONE thing you MUST do for your business is to set clear, specific, time-linked goals.

What? That’s it? Boy, what a build-up for so little … but before you drop this article in disgust and go on to something else, answer me this: What are your revenue goals for the next three months? How many new clients are you planning to close between now and then? What’s the planned average revenue per client you close? Can you also answer those three questions for the remainder of the calendar year? If not, why can’t you answer those questions?

Most people who can’t answer those questions tell me that plans are irrelevant; it’s results that matter. What’s the point (they ask) of plucking numbers out of the air that may or may not match reality? Why not follow the Nike approach and ‘Just Do It’? After all, plans and goals don’t put money in the bank. And of course they are right; in the same way that drawing up plans for a new house doesn’t put a roof over your head – or does it? Do you know anyone who successfully owner-built a new residence WITHOUT first drawing plans? Neither do I, and that’s exactly my point.

Let’s take a few minutes to understand the value of focused business goals to you; and while we’re about it we’ll highlight the three steps to successful goal-setting:

The Journey versus The Destination

Shall we begin by visualising ourselves driving in a car? I usually frame this visualisation within the context of the M3 Motorway in Hampshire, heading for Southampton. (If you unfamiliar with that route you may want to Google it.) The key question is this: Is that a GOOD or a BAD thing?

No idea, right?

We couldn’t answer that question without at least some context, so let’s add a little to our visualisation. Let’s say that we are trying to get to Heathrow airport. (For those unfamiliar with the area, Heathrow airport would be behind us, and getting smaller in the rearview mirror). Now: Is that a GOOD or a BAD thing?

Isn’t it amazing how a simple thing like knowing where we want to go can make such a difference? Goals do that for your business – they give context to your analysis of progress and strategy. They allow you to decide whether to keep doing something or to stop and do something else, because they allow you to understand whether your efforts are moving you closer to where you want to be, or taking you further away.

There or Thereabouts

Let’s just take a moment to delve a little deeper into your destination as context. If you were heading for the airport, would it be enough to know which county it was in? Of course not! In fact, even having the main airport entry road as a destination wouldn’t be good enough – you would also have to know which terminal you were flying from, and where the rental car drop-off point was.

Likewise, it’s not enough for your business to have the goal of ‘being successful’. What does that mean? Take the time to define success. Remember too, that even if you didn’t set up your business to get rich you need financial goals. After all, money is the only means we have of keeping score!

The Tyranny of Time

Of course there are further aspects of context that enhance our visualisation. So, let’s imagine that we have turned the car around and are now heading towards the airport. The clock on the dashboard reads 14:12.

You’re ahead of me by now: You want to know what time the aircraft is leaving before you can tell me whether we’re on time, right? See how powerful that could be for your business? Not just WHAT you want to achieve, but WHEN you expect to be achieving it. So if what you are doing isn’t producing results fast enough, you can start trying something else, because you know where your business should be at a certain point in time. Since you are the driver, you are the only person who can make those changes – and you need the context within which to do it.

Don’t fall into the trap of setting your timelines too far ahead. (Many folk I speak to can tell me what their five-year revenue goal is, but not their current-year goal.) Within the context of our visualisation, what good would it do to know that we have to get to Heathrow in two weeks time? There would be no urgency, no immediate need to consider progress and direction – nothing to help us enhance performance. In short, an opportunity wasted. You – and your business – deserve better than that!

In summary, the ONE thing your business cannot do without if it is to succeed is goals. Those goals need to be clear, detailed and timely. If your business doesn’t have that, don’t delay! You could be on the road to Southampton at this very moment!

Having goals is not the end of the story, as many learn to their cost. The single biggest excuse I hear for not having goals is: ‘I set goals in the past and didn’t achieve them, so what’s the use?’ It’s not too dramatic to say that such people are emotionally scarred by their past inability to achieve their goals – but should they be blaming the goals? Does the problem lie elsewhere? We will explore this further next month.

Are you a Professional Services Executive yearning to grow your business profitably without sacrificing your quality of life? Are your goals becoming clearer but the strategies to achieve them still eluding you? Zee2A can help! Find out more about our Marketing Edge Mentoring Programme here.

©David Deakin and Zee2A Limited

Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph:  David Deakin, CEO of Zee2A, is a marketing guru who works with Professional services Executives yearning to take their business to the next level of profitability and success.  Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes he helps them to create sustainable marketing strategies that attract more clients at profitable rates. To learn more, sign up for his e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit http://www.zee2a.com

Why is the Queue Out the Door?

I was in town around lunch time the other day, after a business meeting, and on the stroll back to my car walked past the Post Office and a variety of different banks. I couldn’t help but notice what they all had in common: Queues out the door!

It got me thinking. What are these people doing? Why are they wasting so much of their precious time standing in queues? Why, in the 21st Century are so many folks still fighting the crowds and rushing around paying bills during their lunch hour? Personally, I’d rather be relaxing over a cappuccino and a good book.

A possible reason could of course be that there is insufficient staff around to cope with customer demand. We’ve all been at the bank, the post office, or even the supermarket and never seen every single checkout / teller / cashier position manned. It always feels like they all go to lunch the same time we do!

However I lean more strongly towards another reason for all the queues: Customer resistance to using the alternatives.

Humans are creatures of habit. If we’ve always done things a certain way, we unconsciously do them on autopilot time and time again. So we have always gone in to the bank to pay our bills. We always go to the post office to buy our stamps or to pay our Road Tax. We take 3 hours on a Saturday to do our grocery shopping. Newsflash: If we keep going to busy places at busy times and rejecting the alternatives, we will keep having to stand in queues!

By the way: our whole philosophy here at Zee2A is to challenge conventional wisdom and find better and smarter ways of doing things. Read more here.

So are there smarter alternatives to standing in queues at the bank, the post office, or the supermarket? Yes, yes, and yes again!

The Bank

I can tell you honestly, that I never go to the bank anymore. Trust me, spending almost a decade and a half working with or for banks, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time inside. I also spent so much of that time trying to educate customers on the alternatives, but I have never come across so much resistance in all my life.

There truly is very little real need to stand in a queue at the bank – just about anything you’ll ever need to do, can be done another way.

• Paying bills? No problem, just set up a direct debit or standing order and you’re set. There’s no need to keep an eye on the calendar either, and you’ll never make another late payment again. Many companies even give you discounts for paying this way. (Bonus!)
• One-off payments? Mail a cheque or pay by card over the telephone.
• Need cash? Use the ATM – plus, most UK banks allow you to withdraw funds from any other bank’s ATM at no charge. You can even get ‘cash back’ when you pay for your shopping at most supermarkets.
• Need to pay-in money? Use the ATM (cheques or notes only, not coins); or put your deposit in a sealed envelope and drop into the deposit box normally located near the queuing area, or through the mail slot at the bank after hours.
• If you haven’t signed up to use your bank’s online or telephone banking service yet, what on Earth are you waiting for?

Most banks will allow you to apply for a loan, an overdraft, or a credit card online or via their telephone banking service. Most will even allow you to transfer funds to an account overseas at the click of a button. I strongly suggest that you visit your bank’s website for full information and to apply for these services. See – you don’t even have to go in to the branch to do that!

(Are you concerned about using these alternatives and the growing threat of Identity Theft? Learn how to protect yourself by reading our e-book available as a free download to subscribers. If you aren’t a subscriber yet click here and sign up – you will be taken to the Download area after verifying your subscription.)

The Post Office

Do you know that you really don’t need to spend time standing in a line at the post office anymore?

If you are one of those people who queues for ages waiting to renew your road tax, for heaven’s sake do it online! For the last few years I have renewed mine via the DVLA secure website. I pay by card, and the new disk arrives within a week.

I don’t even buy stamps at the Post Office anymore. I either buy them with my groceries at the supermarket, or use the nifty facility on the Royal Mail website where I can buy postage online and print it directly on to the envelopes!

Even International Driving Permits, Passport and Drivers Licence Renewals can all be applied for either online or by mail if you don’t leave things to the last minute.

The Supermarket

There are three ways that I habitually do my shopping these days, and my choice depends whether I’m buying a small basketful or an entire trolley’s worth. If I am only picking up a handful of items, I absolutely love the fact that I can use the self-service checkout that most supermarkets have begun installing.

If I have more time on my hands and want to do a ‘proper’ shop, I use the Self-Scanners available. I scan the barcodes as I choose the items and pack them straight into my shopping bag. I even get a preferred checkout where all I do is hand over the scanner and my means of payment, and voila!

When I’m pushed for time, or perhaps want a bulk shop without the hassle of pushing a heavy trolley and packing and unpacking the car, then online shopping is the winner. For a nominal charge I can upload my shopping list and have my shopping delivered at an agreed timeslot. The driver is even courteous enough to bring the shopping straight in to my kitchen, with a smile.

I can’t tell you how many stress-free hours I have saved myself over the last few years by just exploring and then using the alternatives available to me. I would much rather my precious time be used in a more productive way!

If you would like to learn how to make more profit while working less please visit our website to see how we can help!

 

©Vanessa Deakin and Zee2A Limited 2008. Would you like to reprint this article? You may do so as long as you include the copyright notice and the following paragraph: Vanessa Deakin, Operations Director at Zee2A, is a Marketing Coach who works with Professional Service Executives frustrated and disappointed with their current growth rates, marketing efforts, and business profitability. Through one-on-one and group mentoring programmes she helps them to skyrocket their results and break their own best records. To learn more, sign up for her e-zine, or make an enquiry please visit our website at www.zee2a.com