Who is it all really about?
Most business people get the cart before the horse when it comes to promoting their business. How often have you heard statements like “We’ve been in business for 25 years.” “We’re locally owned.” “We have 100% certified technicians.” “We use the latest technology to get the best results.” Bla, bla, bla.
Guess what? No one really cares.
In today’s marketplace, you have to make it about your prospective customer, not about you? It’s all about your prospect’s problem and how you can help them fix it. You have to bring value first to earn the right to ask for their business.
A prospective client asks four questions similar to these below before they hire anyone:
- Does he or she understand my problem?
- Do they have the experience and tools to solve my problem?
- Do they care?
- Will they do what they say they will do?
If you can’t or won’t answer those questions in the mind of your prospect, they will not become a client or customer.
So, when you learn to bring value first, you never have to sell again!
What that means is by your giving value to your prospective client first and actually helping them instead of “hard selling” the sales process becomes easy. You will be viewed as the authority. As the goto expert. And as someone who has your client’s best interest at heart. You will become the natural choice in a crowed world of white noise and “me-too” competition.
Stay tuned for more articles on how to implement this strategy in your business.
Step 1 – Learn to Un-Clique
The only way your personal network is going to grow is to reach out and meet new people. But, our struggle is we like to hang out with the people we know and are comfortable with. But, challenge yourself to reach out and introduce yourself.
The Epic Business Connections give you the easiest way to do that. We encourage on every virtual meeting on Zoom for people to leave their contact information in the chat. We encourage everyone on the calls to be active in asking for a 1-on-1 meeting and to be gracious and receive all of the invitations they receive. And, with the new tools we are creating for our members, it is even easier. The Social.ninja-networking.com site is perfect for reaching out to other people inside the site.
So, make a commitment to make at least 5 new connections this week. Think about it second, if you reached out to only 5 people a week, you will have expanded your personal network by 250 people this year.
5 Steps of Becoming a Networking Superstar
Over the next few days I will share 5 steps to becoming a great networker. Here’s a start:
Don’t just join a networking group, become active and participates as much as you can. Become a resource to the people in the group. And, partiicipate to become noticed!
Slow and Steady Wins the Networking Race
Relationship networking is about consistency and reliability; consistently meeting new people and reliably following up with the folks you have met. It’s about developing relationships with referral partners who can provide a steady stream of income far into the future- the opposite of the fast hit.
Don’t EVER Give Up… Just like anything else worthwhile in life.
- Real networking is all about relationship building, and that takes time!
- The investment payoff will come over time and in many ways.
- The most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when you are overtaken by temporary defeat.
While you are building relationships and patiently nurturing your crops, there are many great benefits along the way.
A really good networking group provides a business education that is not taught in school. I am always learning lots of really great and useful things from my networking brothers and sisters. I learn things about life, living, real estate, technology, marketing and the list goes on and on.
I am always looking to sharpen my skills and I use meetings to practice. I am always learning how to become a better farmer.
Some of my closest and dearest friends have come from networking. Networking when done right really enriches you in many ways.
Be a Farmer, not a Hunter
Real networking is about BUILDING real relationships. Online and Offline
Networking is about farming for contacts, not hunting them.
Many business people go about networking the way our cave-dwelling ancestors went about hunting food–aggressively and carrying a big stick. You’ll see them at any gathering of businesspeople.
They’re so busy looking for the next big sale or trying to meet the “right” prospect that they approach networking simply as an exercise in sifting through crowds of people until they bag the ideal client, the big customer who can turn their business around.
They don’t take the time for “regular people” they’re stalking the CEO, or other high-octane connection, looking for the big kill.
Farmers take a different approach.
They don’t waste time looking for the right person; instead, like those who plant seeds and patiently nurture their crops, they seek to form and build relationships wherever they can find them.
If they get an immediate payoff, that’s fine, but it’s not their principal goal. They know that the effort expended upfront will pay off in a rich harvest later on–much richer then the hunter’s quick kill–and that truly profitable relationships can’t be rushed.
You easily spot the novice at a networking meetup. The novice networker can pull out a business card faster than a Wild West gun slinger. They don’t really seem to be listening to others. The novice networker runs from person to person spamming business cards. They do that once or twice and then say, “That networking stuff just does not work”. An Online novice is just as easy to spot except the online novice jumps right into the SPAM. It’s easy to fall into the trap of hunting for the contact that’s ready to buy right now.