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I’ve just been doing a competitor analysis for a client and I’ve been struck by just how absolutely rubbish most of his competitors are. Which is good news for him, but I thought there might be some learning for the rest of us.
In a slightly random order, here are some tips on what not to do
- Don’t make me guess what it is you do. I want to know as soon as I go to your home page
- Don’t puzzle me with gobbledygook. If you can’t explain what you do in plain English, I’m not going to stay around to figure it out
- Don’t make me peer at the screen to read the tiny writing. I’ll either not bother and go somewhere else, or I’ll get fed up really quickly and go somewhere else
- Don’t give me a section called “Thought Leadership” and then put up two white papers. It makes you look like a bandwagon jumping, self-aggrandising idiot. Which is probably not the brand values you were looking for.
- Don’t rely on diagrams or videos to get your message across – give me some easily digestible words first, and then back it up with a diagram or video
Any other suggestions for bad practice you’ve seen?
I’m a big fan of networking as a way of building up your business. I get about 60% of my business advice clients through networking and referrals, so it’s a healthy way of generating new business. Not to mention all the friends I’ve made, the people I trust when I need something for my business, and all the people I work with on joint projects.
It’s important. But I see a lot of people putting a lot of effort into going out networking and meeting new people, but then not making the most of those contacts as they go along. So I want to talk about networking as a system, a process that you can use to build your business. If you follow this, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get results, unless you’re selling false nails for cats, or Betamax videos.
Meet some nice people
 photo by Frédérique in NZ Find some people. Go out, meet some people who might be interested in your business. Go to some networking events (here’s my list of networking events in Brighton/Sussex)
Be nice. Be interested in what everyone else is doing. Get involved. Tell people about what you do, but after you’ve found out about them. Smile. Aim to speak to between 5 and 10 people in an hour, rather than working the room.
This is the step that lots of people do. They show up, they talk to people, and they go off and do their work. But it’s probably the least important step. It’s a bit like going and looking at lots of pound notes, but not bothering to do the work to put them in the bank.
How to put the pound notes in the bank
Apologies to those readers who are too young to believe that there ever were pound notes, but I’m sure you get the metaphor.
 photo by tigerweet
The next step is to follow up. Within the next couple of days, send the person you spoke to a quick email saying that it was nice to talk to them about…the foolishness of the 20% VAT rate, or the best place to buy ice cream in Brighton, or whatever you were chatting about. If you can give them an article or a weblink which helps them out in some way (not your latest blog post or white paper) then this is nice too. Make sure you have your phone number, website address and preferably a link to your twitter handle in your email signature, so when they want to get in touch they can find you.
And, send them an invitation to join you on LinkedIn. Do not use the standard invitation – personalise it with a few words, as I’m not the only person who feels spammed and spurned if someone wants to connect on LinkedIn and doesn’t even say hi.
Keeping in touch
This is the most important, and difficult part of the networking system.
Because I’ve just launched my other business, Tender Winner I’ve been going through my address book and emailing just about everyone I’ve ever met to tell them about my new thing. I’ve been astonished by how many people have just disappeared. Bounce back emails, resounding silence… Where are they all? I’ve tried to find the nice ones on LinkedIn, but some of them seem to be lost forever.
Some of this is my fault, as I’ve not followed my own rule about keeping in touch as much as I should, but it seems that quite a lot of people have just moved on, and not bothered to tell me that they’ve changed company, or changed email address. So all that networking they did was a waste of time – I’ve no way of helping them with whatever they’re doing now.
But there are lots of people who are still alive and well and I’ve got their updated email address.
Here are some ideas for keeping in touch
 photo by Jeff Cushner
- Identify your best referrers and friends and put them in a spreadsheet or allocate a category in Outlook. Make sure that you contact those people every 3 months in some way – this can be a good excuse to ask for referrals
- For your very best referrers and the people you like, be sure to ask them out on a cake date to catch up. Ensure you make time for this, especially if you’re busy. They’ll come in handy if you want to be more busy.
- Ensure you’re checking out what people are doing on twitter and/or LinkedIn, and comment. Make time to do this and just touch base every now and again.
- When people tell you about what they’re doing, or ask for a favour, make sure you get back in touch, and tell them about what you’re up to as well
- Look for opportunities to do people favours. Not only does this give you a warm glow inside, the reciprocity principle means that they’ll be much more likely to do something for you at some stage. If you read an article about bee-keeping in urban gardens, send it to that person you met at the Brighton Chamber breakfast who does landscape gardening.
- If you think someone is offering a good service, be sure to do everything you can to promote their business. Sell them as if you were selling your own services. And be sure to tell them that you’ve made a referral, even if nothing comes of it they’ll still appreciate the effort.
- If you know people’s birthdays (and this can be as simple as noting it down when they tell you about the birthday they had last week, so you’re ready for next year) send them an email to say Happy Birthday. In an age where birthday cards and presents are dying out, they’ll be touched that you took the trouble.
Right, I’m off to make a note of when Tim Misson’s birthday is, and answer that email from Richard Hall asking me for some thoughts on marketing for his next book. Let me know how you get on.
Many of the small businesses I mentor started off as a passion for something. Carlo Albertoli loves gorgeous Italian food, so it was natural for him to open a deli selling some of the best food in Brighton/Hove. Nigel Berman believes in the importance of cutting carbon emissions, which led to the very successful Nigel’s Eco Store.
So passion is important, but it’s not enough. To get everyone to eat Albertoli’s food or putting their packed lunch in reusable sandwich wraps instead of plastic bags, you need marketing skills. And if you want to sell wonderful artichokes, or radiator boosters, you need to be able to sell enough to pay other people to help you, and to pay yourself too.
 Photo by Sebastian Mary Even if you make the best thing ever
Even if you have the most amazing product/service every, you need to be sure that other people share your enthusiasm. Are there enough people who want a game for a mobile phone featuring the speeches of Abraham Lincoln? Or do too many people share your enthusiasm, such as all the mums who sell baby clothes with cheeky printed logos? Please don’t do this by the way, there’s no money in it.
The passion runs out
Like a marriage, your original passion will run out after a while. I guarantee you, after a couple of years, the initial fire in your belly will no longer be there. But a good relationship can run forever, and so can your business. If you’re still learning interesting things, growing as a business and as a person, and making enough money to make yourself comfortable, you’ll have a very different sort of enthusiasm for the business.
Instead of passion
My advice here is to develop a passion for being really, really good at running your business. Learn everything you can about marketing, customer service, finance, how to manage staff and all the other areas that go to make up a successful business. Having spent years developing my skills in this area, I can safely say that there is never an end to what you can learn here. My passion for business rages on, long after my love affair with any particular business ends.
Want to increase your passion for business?
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You might also enjoy reading about key success factors in business – it’s another goody.
I often recommend that my business support clients build their networks to build a strong set of relationships with potential customers and referrers. Sometimes this can be done simply by joining a networking group and getting involved so people know who you are – that’s been my strategy in getting so involved with the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce.
Sometimes though, your customers aren’t on your doorstep, or they’re more difficult to reach. If you’re selling to corporates, or in a specialised area, you need a more in depth strategy. And even if you are building up a good network around you, you still need to be able to target the right people.
 Target Sign by Mr T in DC So here are some ideas on how to do that:
Who do you want to meet?
Often we’re networking for the sake of networking. This can be good because of course the person you meet at a business breakfast may have a cousin who is married to someone at the BBC who is looking for the expert to host a show about how to grow businesses, which is going to transform your career forever. Do let me know if your cousin’s wife works at the BBC and is looking for that person.
My point is that random connections can work really well. If you have a group of people who like you, understand what it is that you do, and want to recommend you, you’ll probably do well. But sometimes we need a bit more structure to make this work.
The first step is to be very clear about who you want to meet. Who are the decision makers who are going to give you the sale? Which companies do you want to meet with? You need a hit list, either of specific individuals (usually for high value sales of 50k+) or the types of people, e.g. HR Directors of companies with more than 350 employees.
Where do they hang out?
You need to find out where these people are likely to be. Consider specialist trade conferences, seminars and training events, private members clubs, geographically specific networking groups. Dig deep into your target sectors and find out where the people on your hit list are likely to be. You can use LinkedIn to find specific people, and then find out who could introduce you to them, or find LinkedIn groups which have these people in them.
And ask. This is where your slightly more random network of people comes in really handy. Last year a client needed to find people who worked at Virgin in their sponsorship department, and when I asked around, someone I knew put me in touch with the very chap I needed.
Create something
If there are not really groups or networks which your target market decision makers are part of, or if you can’t get into those networks, consider creating something. I’ve worked with a couple of clients who have created networks or seminars for the people they want to work with. They’ve done this as pro bono work, seeing it as an investment in the future. And sure enough, after a little while, my clients have been able to create some good relationships, and then say, Oh, by the way, we’ve got this thing… would you be interested in buying it? Large cheques have followed.
The lessons
Work out where the people you want to meet will be, online and offline Find a way to get there If you can’t find them, create a space where they will come And ask people for specific introductions to the right kinds of people
Other posts on networking for business success
If you found this post useful, you might want to follow me on twitter, sign up to the “Julia Chanteray talks” RSS feed with the big orange button on the left hand side, or get my email newsletter
Other articles on networking include:
Which business networking groups in Brighton and Sussex are right for you
A more general guide to getting going with business networking
Using LinkedIn for business
A couple of days ago someone wanted to give me some feedback about the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce breakfast event that morning. I’m President of the Chamber, so I always want to hear what people have to say.
The main point from this guy was that he didn’t feel that there was enough time for networking at these events. In case you haven’t been to one of our breakfasts, the format is that everyone comes in at 7:45, has coffee and pastries and circulates and chats for about 30 minutes, then we sit down and have breakfast. After breakfast there’s a speaker for about 15 – 20 minutes, usually someone who is talking about their own business journey and passing on some ideas and inspiration. By 9:30, we close the meeting and some people go off to work, and some people hang on and have a bit more chat.
Mr Feedback’s problem was that he didn’t get to meet enough people. What he wanted to do was meet as many people as possible, see if they wanted to buy anything from him, and if not, then move on to the next person. This is called working the room.
My experience
For me, this is a real misconception about networking. I had been at the same breakfast that morning, and I’d spoken to Peter, Rosie, Toby, Rebecca, Rebecca’s friend, Robert and Mark.
I’d said hello to about half a dozen more people, and I’d been able to get hold of the guy that Rebecca wanted to speak to and send him over to her. For me, this is plenty enough people for one event. I want to be able to have in depth conversations with people, and to say hi (therefore reminding them of my existence) to others. I don’t know if there will be any direct business benefit to me from going to particular breakfast, but I know that I learnt some interesting things from the talk, found out something new about Robert which might be of use to one of my clients, and that I had fun. Again, that’s plenty, and well worth the twelve quid.
The risk of working the room
If you work the room, your desire to separate the wheat from the chaff means that you risk offending the people you discard. Those people are not going to want to be your friends.
Very few of us sell anything the first time we meet someone, especially if you sell services (this doubles if you sell complex service). So if someone doesn’t want to buy right now, make sure that you establish a good relationship with them, because they might want to buy later. And of course, they might not want to ever buy from you, but you want them to remember you and like you, because you want them to recommend you to their aunt’s boyfriend’s best friend, who does want to buy whatever you’re selling.
Don’t be a doggie
The other risk with working the room is that you can look needy. You’re like a doggie, sniffing each person to see who is going to give you the money. And no one is going to trust you or buy anything if you appear to be desperate.
Don’t be tempted to work the room – networking is a long term game, with big potential results. Some of the people who have done me the biggest favours in business have been people who I’ve known for years, and who are very unlikely themselves to be my clients, but I’ve got to know them and they’ve been incredibly helpful, recommending potential clients, setting up speaking opportunities (where I do meet potential clients) and media opportunities. You only need a handful of great people like this to make the difference.
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Julia Chanteray at The Joy of Business helps small businesses to develop and grow. She uses her years of experience of running successful businesses to advise, support and mentor businesses in Brighton, Sussex and London.
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