Networking

Are you scratching your head after business events wondering
why you aren’t finding prospects? Whether it’s your first
or 100th event, here are some tips on how to prepare for
your next event that can make the difference between
scratching and smiling. These tips will help you save time,
money, create memorable impressions, and increase
connections.

1. Know your intention. Why are you attending? Listen to
your self-truth. Are you attending to refine your skills,
build relationships, make sales, or need to just get away
from the office? Intentions work best when they are limited
to one. The limitation clarifies and directions all your
actions. When there are multiple intentions, you begin with
confusion and convey the same to all at the function.

Does your intention match the type of event? If it’s a
Christmas party and your intention is to generate sales,
there isn’t a match. You don’t want to give a negative
first impression; they take too long to change. If you
aren’t sure what types attend the event, contact the event
manager, and ask or use of the theme as your answer.

What does your business need? Maybe you need a referral,
are looking for a new employees, or accountant, or image
consultant. A need can be a secondary or first intention.
If you decide to include a need into the equation, make sure
you know what that need is, how to present it and to whom.
After you ask, what is the next step? Clarity is necessary
for success. You job is to be ready for when it appears.

Are you ready for the sale? I’ve met many people who want
sales but aren’t ready for the orders. If someone says yes
at the event, are you ready with the next step? If not,
reconsider your attendance. It is better investment to
focus your time on finishing the preparation. A first
impression of not knowing what you are doing isn’t a good
impression to give.

2. Continuing with the topic of needs…what are your
short-term, medium-term, and long-term needs now? If you
are seeking short-term funds and the event is about building
relationships, medium to long-term, then it might be wise to
pass it up for now and pursue endeavors that match.

For a new business, short-term is three months or less,
medium-term from four or six to eight months, and long-term
is anything over that. Short-term projects usually match
short-term funds, and so on. It’s like buying food and
paying for it over a six-month period when the food only
lasts 30 days. You are buying apples to pay off with
oranges, and the two never mix well.

If there is a mixture, do you have something available to
sell that will generate short-term funds? For coaches,
whose prices do not fall into the short-term attraction
range, selling coaching with the thought that it makes
short-term funds is a mix match. Coaching falls into
medium-term and long-term and seldom short-term unless your
name is very recognizable.

3. It takes three contacts before people are aware that you
exist. It doesn’t matter if this is in person, an ad, or
three ezines. What three do you use to create awareness for
yourself? This is why the 60-second elevator speech is
important. Yet, by itself, it’s too lonely. Shaking hands
and carrying on a discussion is another but that is still
shy of three. If you write Internet articles, bring copies
to the event. Don’t place the articles on the general
table, personally hand them out so people can connect the
two.

4. Rehearse don’t practice. Create a list of 10 opening
questions, choose a few at a time from that list, and
rehearse them with colleagues, friends, or family.
Rehearsing is interacting with live people and is closer to
what you will actually be doing. Practicing into a tape
recorder is the next best thing because it allows you to
hear the voice others will hear. If that makes you twinge,
then maybe that is exactly what others are feeling as well.
Work with a voice coach to refine your tone.

Here are ten story-opening questions to get your started.
Pull from these and then create your own.

(1) What do you enjoy most about what you’re doing?

(2) What is the strangest (or funniest) incident you’ve
experienced in your business?

(3) What marketing have you found most effective in your
business or industry?

(4) What is your key product (or service)?

(5) What do people like best about working with you?

(6) What is your number one need at the moment?

(7) What do you like most about coming here? If it’s their
first time, “What do they like most about the event thus
far?”

(8)What business trends do you see affecting you right now
(or next year)?

(9) If I had an ideal customer of yours in front of me right
now, describe them.

(10) How do you see this event helping you in your business?

Know what actions you want to occur and what are their
triggers. Rehearse until smooth, not strained. Are you
going to ask them to become a subscriber for your
newsletter? Visit your website? Sign up for a workshop?
Set up a time for coffee? You will most likely have several
calls to action, limit them to five, and never request more
than one per person per event. Otherwise, you will come
across as too pushy or confuse your listener.

Ask attendees to join you in the next step. “Ask and you
shall receive.” Ask if they are interested in having a call
together. Ask if they would like to be a subscriber and
mention the main benefit people tell you why they enjoy
receiving it. Ask if they would like to register for your
workshop. If they answer anything other than yes, they
aren’t interest, it’s important to just move on. Never,
never, never, promise to call and don’t. The label will
follow you.

5. Differentiate yourself from others in similar
professionals. Even twins have differences. Leave the
humbleness at home. How are you different from others in
the same profession or selling the same type of product?
Can you explain the differences in 2 minutes during any
introduction if needed? Any longer and the listener zones
out because the conversation is no longer about them.

Due to its importance, let me repeat this. If you don’t
know what you’re selling, how you are different, or have a
clear direction on your current prospect needs, then you
aren’t ready to attend any events yet. Spend the time
defining these first.

6. A memorable moment includes several items. One of the
items is your personal style. You can accomplish this in
your selection of clothing, tone, or language. You can wear
scarves or ties with themes, a comment-getting pin, hats,
and the same color in shirts or shoes. I knew a man who
always wore cowboy boots. He had a wide collection, they
matched his accent, and people could spot him across the
room. Did his style increase business? You bet. Create a
style and treat it like your trademark or calling card.

7. Know what you’re marketing strategy for attending this
event — all seven steps. What happens after yes, after
they become a subscriber, or any other call to action you
have? Always have the next step planned no matter which
direction the conversation goes.

Be the leader and they will follow. Be the leader, inside
and then out.

(c) Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specializes in for-profit
nonfiction writing, marketing, and product development.
Newsletters, articles, forms, and other information business
development, marketing success, writing, and laws of
attraction are available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com
blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

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Networking on the Internet is the same as networking in
person, or is it? Let’s take a conversational tour together
on this topic.

At an in-person networking event you wouldn’t just attend
not to network. Or would you? Normally everyone is there
for a purpose, even if they haven’t totally defined that
purpose, they have a vague idea why they are there.
Wouldn’t that work the same for iNetworking? Yep.

Yet…

Weekly I receive emails and phone calls how someone wants to
connect with me in some way.

Yet…

They have no idea on what. No suggestions, no inklings, no
possible thoughts, nada. I’m always baffled when I receive
these. I don’t have time to educate people because they
surely do need it. A few emails even add their web site URL
link or suggest that I visit their web site to learn what
they do and “figure it out for them.”

For the folks reading this who have done this and wondered
why their email doesn’t get a response or gets a quick
response of “sounds great,” or “you can sell my new product
or become my affiliate if you’d like” — knock, knock,
anyone home up there. People have told me that when they
receive get these responses back, it confuses them. Talk
about confused, how about the person receiving them.

It’s so much easier to either don’t write or say what you
really mean. Simply, say why you are writing, this is what
you do, this is what I do, and here are some possibilities
for us? You can even set this up in a signature file in
Outlook and make it a quick send.

Everything is a mirror. If you want to iNetwork state who
you are, what you offer, or give clues and ideas of
possibilities. Don’t place the burden on the receiver to
figure it out.

This brings us to rule number one in iNetworking. Be
prepared. Don’t be the one that has a great service or
product but doesn’t know who the gatekeepers are or who the
buyers and strategic partners are for your products or
services. Gatekeepers are people that know your more of
your buyers, strategic partners are people that you are
going to do something joint and temporary with to provide
better value for both your customers.

If you went to an in-person networking event you wouldn’t
forget your business cards, or would you? If you attended
an in-person networking event would you not bring the flyers
for your next workshop, not know the benefits of your
product or service, or not know who is your ideal client.
If you did, it would be a social event and not a networking
event.

The same holds true with iNetworking. Have your business
card set up for an easy email send, set a signature file in
Outlook or whatever email software you use, have your
workshop flyer in pdf (Adobe) format, in an auto responder,
designed for a embedded text email and HTML email (embedded
means not as an attachment but as the email itself). In
other words, have all the same materials that you would
create for an in-person networking event available for
deliver via the Internet in multiple delivery formats.

Last week I was at the Women’s Business Center networking
breakfast event. A woman stood up and apologized for not
having her workshop flyer and business cards. She forgot
them on the kitchen counter. Not to be unkind but if this
happens, turn your car around and go back home either to get
the information or do something else more productive. I too
have on occasion during my 20 years in business left things
behind, it only took me once to attend and not have the
necessary material and its embarrassment to learn to never
do that again.

Making a pitch via email to someone that can be a possible
gatekeeper, prospect, or strategic partner is important, if
you don’t have the time to put into a well written and
clearly presented email, turn the car around and do it when
you do have time. If you never seem to find the time, then
look at your priorities, they sound a little off kilter to
me.

I’m not saying you need everything perfect nor have all the
answers but I am saying that you need to know what you want
and say it.

iNetworking isn’t any different than in-person networking in
many respects. In both, you are building a relationship,
it’s just not in person, nor local, it’s international in
many cases. You wouldn’t say in the first three minutes at
an in-person networking event that you want them to be your
affiliate, or would you?

iNetworking is about building relationships. I’ve developed
some wonderful networking buddies on the Internet over the
years and they watch my back and I theirs. It isn’t all
about sales. Yet, each of us knows we need to scratch each
other’s back. And we do. But not until after the initial
time together.

Let’s summarize these points for clarity. iNetworking is
the same as in-person networking in that you need to have a
clear intention or purpose for making contact, even if the
reason is to get to know what each of you do. iNetworking
works its magic best when it includes at least one phone
call after the initial contact.

Since I write Internet articles, I set up many relationships
with publishers and editors. I don’t hesitate to write
them. I compliment them on what they are doing right and
sometimes give them an idea or two on what other sites are
doing to support their writers. They are always grateful
because they don’t have the time to do this. And the
relationship grows from there. I prefer to follow it up with
a phone call or two. I learn about their challenges and I
share the same.

It doesn’t matter who calls whom, be ready with your spiel.
What you do or provide and how you some possible working
arrangements. There is a list of 100 by my phone. Allow
time to iNetwork but look for people who are ready.

Don’t make people guess. Spit it out clearly in your email,
edit and edit again if need be. Sometimes I go through six
or seven edits to make sure mine are clear. Give others the
opportunity to network with you. Here’s my challenge to
you. Who can you reach out to at this exact moment and
begin iNetworking? They are waiting to hear from you.

(C) Copyright, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

Catherine Franz is an avid iNetworker. She’s made many
mistakes over the year and now sees others making the same
mistakes. That is her mission in life, to share information
that will help make the world a better place. For more:
http://www.abundancecenter.com or Catherine’s blog:
http://abundance.blogs.com .

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