PR - An Ecademy Journey

Ecademy are using PR to promote themselves by promoting member success stories. See this link >>>>. One of the often overlooked benefits of business networking is the opportunity for mutual PR.

What do you really do?

My colleague, Martin Davies, delivered our '7 secrets of effective business networking' seminar in Dudley on Friday. One of the points we make is the importance of communicating what you do and who for from the listener's point of view and not yours.

One of the attendees said he had struggled for years to describe what he did at business networking events. As a result of the 7 Secrets Seminar the penny dropped and he understood how to describe what he does in terms of business benefit. Rather than saying “I am an insolvency practitioner” he changed it to “I specialise in helping small businesses who are struggling financially to recover their business”. A clear focus for the audience on his expertise and market.

Strategic Internet Marketing & Business Networking

Internet Psychologist, Graham Jones, delivered a great seminar before the NRG Networking Lunch at London Charing Cross on Internet Marketing. In an excellent handout he gave some great advice about online marketing. Part of the strategy he recommends is getting other people talking about you, rather like our strategy for businesss networking. In fact he says:

"Successful companies succeed by word of mouth. That should be central to your Internet Marketing Strategy."

You can contact Graham at this link>>>> if you would like a copy.

Another great example of Advocacy

At a Networking Meeting on Monday one of the attendees was scheduled to do a one minute to the whole group. The week before he had solved an IT problem for another member of the group and she offered to do the one minute for him. She delivered a great endorsement as an advocate of his service.

Much more powerful than him doing it himself!

Growing your business through the power of metaphor

In some recent seminars at NRG Andrea Moffatt has explored the internal and external challenges of growing your business. She specialises in doing that through a medium that is at once so familiar that you don’t even recognise it and may be in danger of dismissing it. It’s the power of story and storytelling.

I was reminded of this at the launch in the UK last night of Roger Hamilton's book, Wink. On the surface the book is a simple story about a 9 year old boy meeting a number of people on a journey. The real story is in the conversations that he engages in that reveal the wealth generation strategies of the characters. Each of the characters has a different profile from Roger's Wealth Dynamics profiling system.

The Power of Advocacy

At NRG Business Networking Events a member gets a 10 minute slot after lunch to present themselves or their business. At the London Selfridge NRG Event last week the scheduled 10 minute presenter, Jon Davey, of Business in Berkshire was unable to attend (sensibly deciding that his heavy cold should keep him away).

In his place NRG member, Richard White, delivered his endorsement of Jon's business from his own experience. A demonstration of advocacy in action and how a message from a 3rd party perspective can be more powerful than your own.

Building your Reputation

You know that most people you meet at Business Networking will not be your customers so it follows that Networking for Advocates rather than customers is a much more effective strategy. One aspect of this strategy is building relationships. Another is finding ways of building your reputation as an expert or leader in your field.

Chris Bose is a great exponent of sharing his knowledge freely when networking as a way of building his reputation. He sometimes does this by speaking at seminars during NRG Business Networking Events. He told me today that he had just received a valuable enquiry via someone who had seen him speak at a seminar a few months ago.

How are you demonstrating your expertise to your Network?

A great example of follow up

On Monday I posted about the importance of building relationships. The blog was about an unqualified referral I had just made. The person I referred just contacted me to say thank you and that his company had started an initial 3 month contract. A great example of follow up and of advocacy and successful business networking in action.

Returns from Networking

I posted this reply to another excellent thread from Rory Murray at Ecademy.

My first proper job was as a salesman. I remember being uncomfortable with the training process we went through that suggested selling was a numbers game and the number of presentations you made on the benefits the product was the most important factor in driving results. There was also the notion that some people were 'natural salespeople' and could sell anything to anyone. I won't quote some of the derogatory phrases used to illustrate this.

I pretty soon worked out that to get on I had to be one of the top performers. The conventional wisdom was that the top salespeople were the ones promoted.

My approach was to get to know people and find out about their real needs. The retailers I dealt with were not interested in the product I had. They were interested in the customers that they served. They were interested in the shelves and display areas being full of appropriate products that sold well and generated more profit per square foot. They were interested in the person that took the time to understand their business and help them become better at servicing their customers. They were interested in the person that took the time to recommend things and put them in touch with others of a like minded disposition. They were interested in the person that developed Relationships and the Return they provided was in ever increasing sales, support, introductions and some long lasting friendships. Some things that you can quantify and some that you can't.

There may be people wondering why they are getting no return for the time they are investing. Maybe some need to ask what they are spending their time doing. If they are not helping others meet their needs and also building their own reputation in the provision of whatever service it is they are providing then a review of their activity may be in order.

Preparing your Introduction

At business networking events I meet a lot of people who seem totally unprepared for the "So what do you do" question. Why not practise a short, helpful introduction for yourself. You will know when you have got it right when the person you are talking to says: 'How do you do that then?' There are only a few simple ingredients to a good introduction.

Something like "We help [target market] to [benefit]. For example, 'We help consultants double the value of their sales'. The trick is to make it interesting. So instead of telling people that you are an HR consultant, you might say: 'We help hotels retain their key staff.'