| Welcome to 'Connecting is not Enough' |
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Congratulations to Sage for putting on an excellent two-day event for small businesses last week. I was fortunate to speak both at the beginning and end of the conference, so was there throughout. The feedback and enthusiasm from everyone who attended was great to see.
It was interesting to see how positively Sage connected with their customers and prospects and the good will they generated as a result. Alongside the line up of successful business people and topic experts, Sage staff were present to talk about their own product, and many of these talks were full.
It contrasted starkly to the actions of one of Sage's competitors, whose clumsy attempts to hijack the event didn't win them many friends or admirers. I've written about the different approaches to customer engagement here.
Gina Dyer, of AccountingWeb and BusinessZone was present throughout and tweeted updates from the talks. You can read her tweets here, including a blow by blow account of my second presentation!
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Do you use LinkedIn effectively? Most business people I speak to are members of the network but don't really understand how to make it work for their business.
Yesterday I hosted a 45 minute webinar outlining basic advice on how to use LinkedIn effectively as a referral tool. You can listen back to the webinar now using the link below.
Four steps to using LinkedIn as a referral tool - free webinar
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In the last edition of Connecting is not Enough, I mentioned an interview I had just done for The Financial Times. You can read the article, on quality versus quantity in networking, here and my additional comments in the Ask the Experts sidebar here.
(Please note, if you haven't done so already, you will need to register for the Financial Times website. You can register for free to read a limited number of articles each month.)
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If you have any questions you'd like me to address either in this newsletter or on my blog, please either tweet me, post them onto our Facebook or LinkedIn pages or email them to me.
I always try to address as many as possible.
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Happy Networking!
Andy
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What if your 'net' simply doesn't 'work'?
Networking Skill Tip | Jackie Walker asked me on Twitter "Is there an optimum ratio of connecting and helping others before you recognise it isn't ever going to be reciprocal?" Last time out I looked at individual relationships, now let's turn to your network as a whole.
If you have spent a lot of time building a network around you, yet the support and referrals don't flow, there are three key areas I would look at.
First of all, have you connected with the right people? I don't mean the people who will buy from you but people who have a personality that means they talk to a range of people, ask questions, show interest in others and look for opportunities to give rather than take.
Secondly, how strong are your relationships with your network? A network needs to be deep as well as broad, otherwise it lacks true strength. Networking is not a numbers game.
Are you seeing people from your network frequently? Do you engage with them and ask about their business rather than focus on your own needs? Are they happy to hear from you when you call?
Thirdly, how well do you communicate your needs to your network? Networking doesn't stop when you have built the relationship, you must be willing to ask for help when appropriate and when needed. You can't expect people to read your mind and know the support they are best placed to offer you.
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Sharing the good news
Networking Strategy Tip | When asked where their most effective new business comes from, the average company will respond 'recommendation or referral'. When asked what they do to generate those referrals, few will have an answer beyond, 'I do a good job for my customers'.
I have some bad news I'm afraid. People are far more likely to talk about bad news than good. Pick up the papers and look at the front pages to see what I mean. Bad news sells, bad news tells a story.
Doing a 'good job' for our customers means meeting their expectations. After all, when was the last time you employed someone's services because you expected them to do a bad job? Simply having our expectations met doesn't give us a story we feel compelled to share with others. If they're not met, however, we want to tell everyone else.
So you have two choices if you want your customers to refer you. One - you can substantially exceed their expectations and give them a story to share. If you continually exceed their expectations, however, those expectations will grow and you will have to raise your game again.
Alternatively you can be proactive and implement a referrals strategy, including asking people for the connections you need.
Businesses will benefit from some referrals passively, simply because their customers talk about them. But relying on that as your only source of referrals simply won't produce the return you want.
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Should you have a business page on Facebook?
Online Social Networking Tip
| The Executive Research Association asked me on Twitter how easy it is to set up a Facebook business page and how beneficial it is.
The first part of this question is much easier to answer than the second. Setting up a Facebook business page is very straightforward. The difficulty lies in attracting people to join and, more importantly, engage.
In my personal experience I find Facebook to be the most difficult of my social networking groups to drive debate and discussion. There are fewer prompts for people to visit and people won't necessarily automatically visit the page.
Having said that, the monthly stats I get from Facebook suggest a level of use that isn't apparent from the participation of members. This indicates to me that many people 'lurk', looking at the posts but not commenting or feeding back. It can appear as though no-one is participating but, in fact, you might be attracting a lot of interest.
I've tried to make my Facebook page a resource for interesting articles on networking, rather than just about me. That fits with Social media expert Nikki Pilkington's advice. Nikki told me, "The important thing is not to be all 'me me me' and just post links to your website - you need to share info and links to other sites in the same way that you would on Twitter ".
I won't pretend I have discovered the best answer to this one and would welcome other views. Why not post them on my Facebook page? ;-)
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Getting good referrals: Part two - Understanding
Video Tip |
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| Andy recommends... | |
I recently met with Vanessa Vallely. As a professional woman working in the City of London, Vanessa founded We are the City as a resource for women based in the Square Mile, Canary Wharf and surrounding areas.
The aim of the site is to bring both recommendations and items of interest that are centric to working in the City and the female community and Vanessa's goal is to become the 'Little Black Book' for the City's female workforce.
I was very impressed with the time and effort Vanessa has put into We are the City and how she has developed it. As well as the expected recommendations of bars, shops and events, there are a range of articles and resources focused on professional and career development.
There are over 4,000 members on the site already and Vanessa is linked to women's networks all across the City. They are now the fastest growing women's network in the City of London.
You can join for free, just visit their site and sign up for their newsletter here.
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| Just for Fun |
Time for a bit of culture I think! This is an amazing version of Swan Lake performed by the Chinese State Circus.
Of course, if the classical version is not your thing, you could always go for a slightly different approach, such as that provided by Madness!
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I hope you've enjoyed the newsletter and look forward to your feedback.
If you're serious about developing a networking and referrals strategy that can take your business to a new level, or you are interested in booking me for a speech or training session for your team, find out more details on our website or you can contact me on:
Tel: 07930 417833
Skype: andylopata
I look forward to hearing from you.
Andy
� All material copyright H & A Lopata ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
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Rare chance to attend a public workshop on developing your networking and referrals strategies
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don't often run public workshops, most of my longer sessions being
presented in-house for various clients. I am, however, running a series
of half day workshops for Surrey Chambers of Commerce between now and
the end of the year.
The workshops are:
1st October - How to generate more business by increasing your networking
2nd November - Leveraging the power of your network
7th December - Using LinkedIn as a referral tool
For more information, click on the links above or visit the Surrey Chambers website
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Andy's Musings...
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A selection of Andy's regular online columns and coverage elsewhere:
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In other people's words:
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"I had the benefit of seeing Andy speak about getting referrals at Sage World 2010 and found the talk both informative and enjoyable.
The lessons I took away have helped my business to gain several referrals that I would potentially never have thought of.
I would recommend if you get the chance to see him talk, go. It will undoubtedly help you in some way."
Kat Durrant,
Wildfire Digital Media
Read more testimonials on our website
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