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Posts Tagged ‘Build your business with Networking’

Prioritize Three!

November 7th, 2009 Becky No comments

AbigailPeople, who are building their business through networking, can be some of the most successful professionals, and also some of the most active.  Because of this, I asked Abigial to contribute the following article so we can all gain some benefit. Enjoy.  Thanks, Abigail!

When someone else is managing a project or outcome they will remind you of what is due and when. When it’s your own business, especially if you are a sole proprietor or only have a few employees, it is often extremely difficult to stay focused on the priorities or to feel like you are making progress toward your goals.
 
Tyranny of the Urgent
If you’ve read the Steven R. Covey book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you already understand the difference between important and urgent tasks. If you haven’t read this book, it’s worth making the time to at least understand the four quadrants and where you are spending most of your time.
 
Taking Action
In addition to understanding the difference between urgent and important, it’s crucial that you understand the difference between an action and a project. What we think is one action might actually be a series of actions required for a result. My own experience and my clients have taught me that business owners often label a result as an action.
 
“Update your website” is a result I often see on my client’s list. It’s usually been on their “To Do” list for months, because they haven’t taken the time to break it down into bite-sized actions. Without breaking it down, they cannot figure out what action is needed, so none is taken.
 
Example
Let’s talk about the steps involved to get to the desired outcome of an updated website. This list is neither comprehensive, nor in priority order. It’s merely an example to clarify the difference between the desired result and the many actions it takes to achieve that result:

  • Establish a budget for updating website
  • Get recommendations for a web designer
  • Hire a web designer
  • Establish priorities for the site update
  • Call photographer for new photo
  • Schedule haircut prior to photo
  • Select photo
  • Hire a writer to update content
  • Hire marketing expert to consult on new brand/content/logo
  • Book meetings with designer to review updates
  • Proof updates
  • Schedule soft launch of new site
  • Marketing blitz for major launch of new site

The important point is that most of these steps are easy to do. If necessary, assign them to your assistant for completion.
 
Prioritize Daily
When there is a fabulous vacation coming up, or a crisis, most of us easily prioritize what must be done and what can sit or be delegated. Developing that skill on a daily basis dramatically increases results and reduces stress. Many years ago I discovered that I need to write things down.
 
All that writing meant I spent years with a “To Do” list with 20 to 40 things on it, every day. The pressure of undone tasks was exhausting. Recently, I learned a new discipline – prioritize three daily. I still keep a list in my notebook of all the things that need to be done for my businesses, my health, my home, and my family. The night before, I review the list, and select the three next actions that will have the biggest impact. I write those down and make them a priority for the next day. I might get them all done by noon; sometimes it will take the entire day to get them done. At the end of the day, I know I am moving forward on my highest goals. Occasionally, when I’ve been able to complete the three priorities for the day early, I will take on the next two or three highest priorities in the same day. Some days, once I’ve accomplished the highest priorities, I give myself permission to take the rest of the day “off.”

 © 2009 Straight Edge News          All Rights Reserved.

Contributed by:

Abigail Dougherty
Straight Edge Solutions 503-297-5798

Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com

Categories: Abigail Dougherty, Effective Business Processes, Networking Tags: , ,

September 21st, 2009 Becky No comments

AbigailYou may wonder what Tips for Outlook has to do with Networking Is Not Selling, but if you are trying to grow your business by networking, I’m sure you’ve found, like I have, that you need to stay organized. One of my favorite writers/speakers, Abigail Dougherty, has given us some useful tools to stay organized using Outlook.

 1.  Change Your View

Set up your Outlook page so you see your calendar before you see your email. That keeps you focused on the tasks that must be done for the day, before you risk being sidetracked with email messages.

 On Microsoft Outlook main page click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. At the top of Options page you have choice tabs:  Preferences, Mail Set Up, Mail Format, Spelling, Security and Other. Click on OTHER.  Under General (the first choice) there are two buttons – select ADVANCED OPTIONS.

 Under “Startup in this folder”:  Browse for CALENDAR
Then OK yourself back to the main screen.

This will prompt the calendar to be the first thing you see when you turn on Outlook.

2.  Turn it OFF!

A. Turn off default meeting reminders – You can manually set this for only your critical appointments. This will save you a long list of reminders for appointments that are passed when you’ve been away from the office for a few hours.

On Microsoft Outlook main page click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. At the top of Options page you have choice tabs: Preferences, Mail Set Up, Mail Format, Spelling, Security and Other. Select PREFERENCES, go down to Calendar (second choice) and remove the check mark from default reminders. 

B. Turn off all the incoming email notifications

On Microsoft Outlook main page click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. At the top of Options page you have choice tabs: Preferences, Mail Set Up, Mail Format, Spelling, Security and Other. Select PREFERENCES, go down to email (first choice), click on EMAIL OPTIONS. This opens up Advanced E-mail Options.

The second section “When new items arrive in my Inbox” should ALL be UNCHECKED. You do not need a ding, a ghost, a changed cursor or an envelope to tell you email is there if you get in the habit of regularly checking your email only two or three times a day.

3.  Building Your Contact List
Use your signature block on all new messages.

On Microsoft Outlook main page click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. At the top of Options page you have choice tabs:Preferences, Mail Set Up, Mail Format, Spelling, Security and Other.

Select MAIL FORMAT, go down to SIGNATURES (third choice) and select your email account(s) that need a formal signature block. Select signature blocks for both the original messages as well as responses to messages. Click on SIGNATURES to see and edit any signature block you currently have set up.

The key is to click on APPLY, rather than OK once you have made your updates/corrections.

 When someone pulls up your message they can easily create the contact page in Outlook to reconnect with you. They will simply drag your message into CONTACTS, which automatically opens a new contact. It’s a quick cut and paste to put the information in the right places in the contacts form.

4. Booking Appointments

Have you ever missed an appointment because critical information wasn’t on your PDA or calendar page?  It’s not even necessary to open the email to turn it into a calendar event.

Simply drag the email message onto the Calendar selection and a new appointment will open – with today’s date and the current time. You will need to edit the date and time to match the actual meeting time. It’s also an excellent time to copy-paste the location or bridge line information into with the subject or the location of the appointment. Now your PDA will show the necessary details. A copy of the email will stay attached to the appointment in your calendar. The original message is still in your in box, so you can file it appropriately.

These simple steps will make your life easier and allow a few more minutes to call that client or talk to that vendor you’ve been needing to meet.

© 2009 Straight Edge News          All Rights Reserved.

Contributed  by Abigail Dougherty

Straight Edge Solutions  

503-297-5798

Abigail@StraightEdgeSolutions.com

Categories: Abigail Dougherty, Networking 101 Tags: , , ,

The Networking Secret to my Success!

September 10th, 2009 Becky 1 comment

doorA wonderful woman I met at a meeting I spoke at (Sellwood B2B) on Effective Internet Marketing You Can Do Yourself for Free mentioned when we spoke again that she hadn’t been able to attend recently because she felt she had to choose between clients and a networking group, and what follows is what I wrote back to her hours later when the comment resurfaced in my mind – that she said she greatly appreciated.  Becky asked me to post it because it has some very good points about networking – and the one at the end has been one of my secrets to success for my business!

“You commented earlier about weighing priorities as in clients vs the network groups, and it just popped in my head again, but I think the two can and should be complimentary.  But I’m not selling you on networking groups – this is my intuition telling me to email you back and let you know: in networking we work together to bring each other more clients (we are each other’s part time sales force), to foster a better reputation, and to grow personally by surrounding ourselves with like-minded professionals.

I actually have a great group of professionals, a majority of them are quality women, that meet on Tuesdays at noon at Kennedy School McMenamin’s. I have no idea how far that is from you or what your Tuesdays look like, but I think you would be a stand out contributor and find great value in it.  I happened to invite another woman today that may also be a good fit, she’s in payroll which we need – but actually I see you as an ideal fit.

I gave a networking tip today to the group that was EXTREMELY well received and it has worked wonders for me – invite your prospects and clients to the meetings.  How does that serve them and you?  They are able to do business with people at the group, able to receive referrals from the group and they get to hear about you from some of your closest (networking) partners who may also be client’s themselves (as I would).  I personally make it a point to do business with people in my groups so I can give a testimonial as a client.

Just a few cents I hope make sense.”

——————————————

Charles Montgomery

Northwest eSource

(503) 922 – 1446

charles@nwesource.com

http://www.NWeSource.com

NWeSource Logo

Categories: Charles Montgomery, Guest Authors, Networking, Networking 101, Northwest eSource, Power Partners, i Take The Lead Tags: , ,

Networking is not Selling, but you can Build an Incredible Business by Networking!

September 6th, 2009 Becky No comments

Noize_Headshot_ezr

 

Build Your Business with Networking
By Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach

Being successful in business is less about having all the answers yourself than knowing where you can access expertise. Since you can’t know everyone, you often rely on your friends or trusted colleagues for referrals, which is where your professional network comes in handy.

After all, a basic truth of business is that people do business with people they know, like and trust.  Happily, this model works both ways. The more people who know you or about you, the more business will come your way.

Creating an extensive professional network is not nearly as time-consuming or intimidating as you might think, but it does take conscious effort. I call my network my “Team 100″ but of course, you can call yours whatever you like. I learned of the Team 100 concept from Thomas Leonard, who was the founder of CoachVille, and widely hailed as the father of the professional coaching industry.

What Is A Team 100?

A Team 100 is a group of one hundred people with whom you have a professional relationship, either as a colleague, vendor, or client, and who have expertise in various areas. The relationship is reciprocal, in that members of your team get as much value from the relationship as you expect to get.

A Team 100 can fill several functions in building your business: It can help you develop a strong professional network, tap into expertise and knowledge, help you resolve problems or at least point toward someone who might help you, and of course, provide referrals to you.  You provide the same services to your contacts (your Team 100 members). 

Setting Up the Meeting

To get started, think about what type of expertise and contacts you wish you had, and then start making phone calls. When I started putting mine together, I set up a series of lunches with people I admired to meet and get to know them, share information, and so on. These meetings were NOT sales opportunities.  I explained to each person that I was developing my “dream network” for my Team 100 of professional contacts, and I wanted to get to know them to add them to my Team 100. (I had heard that most people are flattered and pleased to be invited, and so it was in my experience.)

If you’re not up to cold calling people with whom you have no previous connection, you can leverage those networking relationships that you already have, such as approaching the membership of the networking groups to which you belong. Call a certain number of members (say one or two per week), and set up individual meetings for coffee with them. Explain that in order to refer business to him or her (which is the purpose of networking, right?), you need to know more about what that person does, and you would like to set up a time to find out.

You may find that setting a time limit to these networking meetings will help allay any fears the other person might have about wasting time. I usually set mine for 30 minutes, because most people can spare that much time for a one-time meeting, and also because they know they’ll get to talk about their business.

What To Talk About During the Meeting

There are three questions you want to ask to gather the type of information you need to be able to refer business appropriately:

1. Who is your ideal client? Ask for both demographic and psychographic info here. If the person just says something general, gently press for more specifics, or ask for a description of the perfect client for his or her business. If this question doesn’t get much of a response, ask a hypothetical question, such as: If you could clone just one of your clients, who would it be, and why? What is it that makes this particular client so good for your business?

2. How will I recognize that client? Is there a situation, such as divorce, inheritance, or opening a new business that is present in your ideal clients’ lives? Or is there a certain phrase that your clients often use, such as being overwhelmed or needing help with something specific, that I should listen for?

3. What would you like me to tell any referrals about you when I give them your contact information? This could be anything, such as results, like you’ve never lost a case or your clients usually get a 100% return on their investment within 30 days; or about you personally, like you’re a classically trained pianist in addition to being a jazz composer, or that you come from a spiritual base. This is your opportunity to include some significant information about yourself or your practice that will resonate with your ideal client.

How The Meeting Flows

It has been my experience (although yours may be different) that these meetings generally follow a pattern. The first five to ten minutes are spent getting coffee and in general chit chat; the next 15-20 minutes are spent on the other person, and the last five minutes are spent on you.

It is important that the other person get plenty of time to share, not only so that s/he sees that you are not trying to sell anything at this meeting, but so s/he feels understood and valued (VERY important in relationship building). This means you must be prepared to respond to the same questions quickly, concisely, and completely. Of course, since you already know the questions, you can come to the meeting prepared to do just that!

The outcome is that the other person will (usually) have warm, kindly feelings toward you, and is flattered to be included in your professional network. If the opportunity arises, this person will likely refer business to you.

Dealing With Temptation

Of course, there is always the possibly that this person recognizes him- or herself in your ideal client description and will want to talk to you in more detail. Although it will be very tempting to extend this meeting and turn it to your advantage this way, DON’T do it. If the other person really is a prospect, you can set up another time to chat so that your meeting will have a different agenda than networking. If you don’t do this, you will be remembered as someone who “baited and switched” that person into a meeting. Bad karma, I’m telling you!

Ending The Meeting

Part of maintaining your professional network is staying in touch, which you can do through notes, calls, invitations and such, but the easiest way is probably through your newsletter. But how can you offer to do that without sounding like you’re selling something (which is not how you want to end this meeting)?

After The Meeting

Following a networking meeting, I send a note of thanks, add that person to my mailing list, and then make a point of personally touching base every quarter or even every six months, depending on my schedule. Result: Another resource for my professional network (I LOVE to refer people!), plus another person who knows, likes and trusts me, and equally important, another person in my network who is now in the position to refer business (my ideal clients!) to me.

This article was written by Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach. Ronnie’s web site is a comprehensive marketing resource for small office/home office business professionals. For free marketing resources including articles and valuable marketing tools, visit her web site at http://www.veronikanoize.com/, or email her at Ronnie@VeronikaNoize.com. 

 

 
   
 

Categories: Building Strategies, Networking 101, Ronnie Noize, Vancouver Wa, Veronika Noize Tags: