Posts Tagged ‘networking’
An associate of mine who has read this blog asked me two interesting questions. He was curios to know how I manage a database of over 3600 contacts, and how I determine the monetary value of my contacts. Since I built my database out of shear desperation and poverty, and over a long period of time, I never really stopped to think about it until now. Today, I’ll answer the first part of his question.
For starters, my database is something that I created and customized myself–with a little help from various programming forums around the world. Although it’s highly customized to meet my needs, there are many of its functions that can be replicated through Microsoft Outlook or other personal information managers (PIMs). My system combines my database (created in Microsoft Access), several different Outlook plug-ins and some web tools.
The reason I customized my database started in 1999 with my first Palm Pilot. I was dissatisfied with how the handheld synchronized with my desktop computer. I started researching customization options and found the best solution in a program that allowed the handheld to sync directly with a desktop database. This was important to me because I needed a PIM that was also a customer relationship management (CRM) system that allowed me to keep a history of all my communication with prospects and customers, create proposals, create orders, and manage my vendors and their products, services and pricing.
I also needed to keep track of my network and always know who gave me referrals and to whom I gave referrals. And all of the information had to be instantly searchable by virtually unlimited parameters. Easy, right?
I won’t bore you with my tales of trial and error. Aside from being ridiculously tedious and time consuming, my bumbling was downright embarrassing at times. In this case though, the result was worth the effort.
To keep things simple, I’ll focus on how I manage my networking through the technology I employ coupled with my personal strategy.
Let’s track the life cycle of a potential new networking connection. After developing rapport with someone at a networking event, the wheels are set in motion. First, I enter the information into my PIM ASAP. If this is going to be delayed because I’m having a busy week, I will make sure that I at least send a follow up e-mail to my new contact. This area is where I employ the first bit of technology. I’ll use my BlackBerry to send an e-mail reinforcing our conversation. This must happen within 48 hours. I do this by utilizing downtime on the subway or my couch. Next, I will invite my new contact to my LinkedIn network. One of the aforementioned Outlook plug-ins is LinkedIn. After adding several new contacts, I can send several LinkedIn invitations at once. My record is 32 at one sitting.
If I decide that my new contact needs more follow up, I’ll make sure to create a new task to remind me of what I need to do. I do that either on my BlackBerry or Outlook and have it sync wirelessly through a hosted Exchange service. I won’t to go into too much detail about hosted Exchange, but it saves me loads of time. Feel free to check it out here. This is the service that includes BlackBerry support. Hosted Exchange.*
The other Outlook plug-ins I have are Plaxo, for synching my Outlook contacts, calendar, tasks and notes online, Google calendar Sync, for synching my Outlook calendar to Google and Xobni, for keeping track of my e-mail exchanges with my contacts.
Another great tool is Google Apps for Business. Google offers over 7 gigabytes of storage (more than just about any corporate exchange server), shared calendars, corporate intranet, shared documents and lightning fast e-mail search—all for free. The best part is that you can use a branded e-mail address. I don’t think it’s the worst thing to use Yahoo!, AOL or Hotmail, but I think it’s much more professional to use a branded e-mail address. I’ve met people who looked and sounded professional, but handed me a card with something like johnny1283atyahoo.com. I covered this in my first technology overview http://www.drsallywitt.com/networkingmastery-technology. Do yourself a favor and spend the 10 dollars a year to have your own professional sounding brand.
All of this is to ensure that I never lose a networking opportunity. It also keeps my data in several different places in case my computer dies. Although I back up twice a day, I make sure to have my critical information online also. This way, I’ll always have access and never lose my contacts.
The last bit of information is about keeping track of changes to my contact’s information and communicating with my contacts en masse. If you’re not on Plaxo, get on it post haste. People change jobs, move, get promoted, et cetera. Plaxo automatically notifies you of changes. If you choose, you can have it automatically apply those changes to Outlook (it also works with other PIMs and on Macs). I highly recommend it, and again, it’s free.
With regard to communicating with your entire contact base, I strongly recommend Constant Contact.* I find the service to be extremely useful. I use it to send professional looking messages to large groups of people. I send a monthly newsletter to my customers and twice yearly, I send an e-mail out to all of my networking contacts. It’s also great for holiday cards. I couldn’t do that through Outlook because of the limited number of messages you can send out at one time, but I wouldn’t want to if I could. Constant Contact allows me to track who opens my messages, who clicks on links within my messages (particularly useful when I’m marketing to my customers) and which e-mail addresses could not be reached for various reasons. I like that kind functionality.
Even though this all seems complicated when it’s laid out all at once, the learning curve for each service is negligible. There are many ways to approach contact management. This is what works for me as a one man business. I built my business on networking and need to make sure that I make the most of every opportunity. I encourage you to look into your own solution. The bottom line is that competition in every sector is fierce. Do you want to be someone who is organized like me, or do you want to be in competition with someone who is organized like me? Hmm. Talk to you soon. Until then, Decide, Commit, Conquer.
*Full Disclosure: I am a reseller for this service.
Francisco J. Acosta
Executive Vice President
Internal Business Consulting
212-330-0300
www.ibcglobal.net
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How long have you been networking? I’ve been at it since July of 2000. For over 8 years I’ve joined various groups, visited dozens of others, and given my “elevator speech” so many times that I can recite it in my sleep. I’ve been hugely successful in my networking. Not because I’m a genius, but because I’m patient. Many times I speak to people that are either quitting the networking group they belong to or not renewing their chamber of commerce membership. Although I understand that there are times when the group or chamber is the issue, the vast majority of the time the reason for discontinuing is the person hasn’t gotten results. Funny thing is that whether you succeed or fail at something, you have gotten a result.
I always ask about the details of the supposed failure, and the answers are fairly consistent. The person who hasn’t gotten results from networking, generally hasn’t put in either enough effort or time into the endeavor. On some occasions, they lack the skill-set to facilitate positive results (check out my earlier posts on the subject). Overwhelmingly, however, it comes down to sowing and reaping. And, yes, it has to be in that order. And, just like with crops, there has to be an understanding that your efforts will not yield results immediately. As I like to say in my networking seminar, the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.
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Francisco J Acosta
Technology has become one of those words that people either love or hate. The Luddites wax poetic about the days before ubiquitous cell phone use. I suppose they won’t be happy until messages go back to being pounded out on stone tablets. I will go ahead and assume that if you’re reading this blog post, you embrace technology. In that spirit, this entire post was written and edited on my BlackBerry (not a joke).
So how does technology fit into networking? One way is communication. When I meet someone at an event, I will sometimes have a follow up action item. It could be sending a short e-mail message, or sending information about my business. In the past, I would have to wait until I got back to my office. This was no problem if I only had one thing to do for one person. That was almost never the case. In fact, I used to spend two hours a night on this kind of follow up, along with reading the day’s e-mails.
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Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share an experience that I had last evening. I attended an open meeting with my wife at a local Borders. It was a “Meet Up” for Wiccans and other Pagans (Druids, etc). I was there to support my wife and just to get out from behind these four walls with her but I found it fascinating for this reason:
As a podcaster, like many of you, we do not have any types of meets or conventions around here. If we want to participate in a gathering of our like minded counterparts, we have to go to Nevada, California or Canada. Why is that? Besides, who has the money to travel then pay the outrageous fees to enter.
So I am thinking that maybe a small band of us could perhaps try and put something together on a smaller scale and locally where we can hold the meet up for no cost and collaborate on our own. Why not? We all have a common goal and networking is the best way to accomplish goals.
Thanks for listening, Joel
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“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” The fictional character of Don Corleone famously uttered the words of Chinese general and military strategist Sun-Tzu (~400 BC). I think this advice is as relevant for business as it is for battle. Yet, so many people run in the opposite direction when they see a competitor in the room.
Most people that do this believe that either there is no point in speaking with a competitor or that they must jealously guard their territory. The first stems from a lack of creativity. The second stems from a belief in lack. I say embrace the competition. There is enough business out there for everyone, and you never know when your competitor can become your ally. I’m not just saying this from a philosophical perspective. There are practical applications.
Here are examples from my own experience. I met a merchant services competitor of mine at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. I didn’t know that much about his company, so I made a point to follow up with him and keep in touch. At the end of 2006, I had an opportunity that fell into my lap. The big challenge for me was the manpower needed for the deliverables. I had the resources to sign the deal, but I wouldn’t be able to handle servicing the deal on my own.
I met with my competitor and learned all about his capability. His company had exactly what I needed. We went into contract on a joint venture. I had the deal, and he had the back end capacity to service the deal. It made perfect sense, but if I had been paranoid about talking to someone else in my field, I would have never known about the resource I had at my finger tips.
Sometimes, a competitor has a better offer. One of the ancillary services I offer is telephone bill reduction. One day at one of my networking meetings, a guest that does the same thing visited my group. They didn’t let him in the group because he competed with me, but I followed up with him. I asked him questions about his offering and discovered that I could make more money selling the phone service through him. I have been doing so since 2003.
The next time you’re in a room with a competitor, exchange cards and ask lots of questions. Most of the time, you will find that there is a gap in your company’s offerings that your competitor’s company can fill. The reverse may be true as well.
For my next post, I’ll discuss how technology can help you network. Until then, Decide, Commit, Conquer.
Francisco J. Acosta
Executive Vice President
Internal Business Consulting
212-330-0311 Phone
www.ibcglobal.net
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass.” Paul J. Meyer
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Etiquette is something that most people assume in business. Yet, I’m frequently dumbfounded by people who claim they want to network with me, but don’t return calls and e-mails. Worse, they reply with something like, “I don’t remember you.” First impressions are important, of course, but second impressions can be deadly if not handled correctly.
This is why I always suggest to start with the end in mind. Be honest with yourself about why you are at a networking event, and decide ahead of time not only what you plan to get out of it, but what you’re willing to contribute to the networking process. People seem to get overzealous and fall into what I call the “Yes Defect”. This is where you say yes to everyone you meet at a networking event. Yes, you’ll follow up with a call. Yes, you’ll e-mail that great article. Yes, you’ll introduce them to a colleague. Yes, you’ll be glad to meet with them. Yes, you want to partner up for a joint venture.
I’ve heard all of these and more. Some have done what they said they’d do, but most have not. Why, because the intention wasn’t there to begin with. It’s perfectly reasonable to tell people with whom you are networking that you just can’t move to the next step. If you know that you really don’t have synergy with someone, be honest. If you know you would hate working with someone, be honest—in a nice way of course (no need to be brutal). So many people I meet say they will do this, that and the other, but never follow up. Even when I reach out to them (which I always do when I’ve had a good conversation), they ignore me. This is a particularly bad idea because you will most likely run into each other again.
Here is my game plan when I have a networking opportunity:
Intellectual Curiosity. What’s interesting about the person or his industry? Is there a fit between what I do and what she does? Can I refer my precious clients? Do I want to? Is there a way to partner up and create a dynamic business opportunity? In other words, I have a meaningful conversation to determine whether or not to take more aggressive action in the days and weeks following the event.
If this conversation doesn’t yield any real potential in a few minutes, I move onto someone else. Having said that, please keep in mind that no one likes to feel as if they’ve been brushed off. At a recent event, someone asked me what I did in my business. After giving him about 5 seconds of an ultra brief overview, he said, “I have no use for your services.” This was inappropriate for several reasons. Firstly, telling anyone something like that is just rude. Secondly, there is no way to fully understand anyone’s business from their business card or their elevator pitch. Lastly, I probably know someone that could have used this man’s services. Do you think there is even the remotest chance that I would ever give him a referral?
This brings me to another point regarding etiquette in networking: However you present yourself to me, is how I assume you’ll present yourself to my clients and colleagues. If you’re late for your meetings with me, don’t return calls or e-mails, or do and say inappropriate things, I will have no confidence in referring you. I encourage everyone to remember why you’re networking and the fact that networking is not a one-time event. Years ago, in a sidebar conversation, a man in a group I was in decide to insult a group of people in a harsh way. He didn’t realize that I belong to that group and was therefore indirectly insulting me. Just recently, he reached out to me because he had a new job and wanted me to help him out. I told him why that wasn’t going to happen. He was shocked, but he was out of luck with me. As the old saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.”
It’s very important to have a sense of what is appropriate and what is not. You must straddle the line between familiarity and professionalism. There are people who knew me for years before they knew anything substantive about me or my opinions regarding politics, religion and the many other subjects that come up during networking. I spend most of my time asking questions. Remember, everyone’s favorite subject is themselves.
Networking events are your chance to be a walking, talking advertisement for yourself. Everyone you meet is watching and listening. Make sure you support your brand and leave the people you meet feeling comfortable about who you are and what you do, and confident about working with you and referring their clients.
For my next post, I’ll discuss working with the competition. Until then, Decide, Commit, Conquer.
Francisco J. Acosta
Executive Vice President
Internal Business Consulting
212-330-0311 Phone
www.ibcglobal.net
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass.” Paul J. Meyer
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We are all told that we have to network to be successful in business. Unfortunately, most of us are never told how to be successful at networking. I have attended several workshops, seminars and tele-classes on the subject of networking. Normally, I get the same information from all of them; go to lots of events, bring plenty of business cards, talk to everyone (don’t forget your breath mints). And, somehow, magically business will start to flow in like a raging flood. Yet, I’ve had many people tell me that they have followed this advice to no effect. Then they ask me how I was able to develop and grow my business for over 5 years without advertising.
When I first started out, I ran around like everybody else. And like everybody else I got the same results. I started to formulate a plan to get the most out of networking. First, I began with the end in mind. Was my goal to hand out a bunch of cards and collect a bunch of cards? Was my goal to get another one lead from another one person? That is what I was taught, and I did get leads, but it was exhausting. And, quite frankly, I’m just not that motivated. My goal became to establish meaningful relationships with people so I could form dynamic business connections. Meaning, instead of looking for a lead from every individual, I was looking for an individual who could become a gateway to their organizations.
Here’s an example. I was in a business development group with a banker. Bankers are excellent referral sources for me. In this case, I didn’t just try to get leads from this banker. I asked him to bring me into his bank so I could become part of the larger group. In this case, that meant that I would be able to communicate with over 300 bankers. I was invited into their training sessions where I spoke to entire branches. Could I have gone branch to branch on my own and spoken to each individual banker? Theoretically, yes. But I told you I’m not that motivated. More importantly, that would have taken an enormous amount of time. Instead, I got direct access to groups of bankers. Presenting to one person is the same as presenting to 30 people. I’d rather present to 30 people. As a result, I had a steady flow of leads from my best referral sources. Then, I started hearing from bankers who I had never met because of the results I had gotten with the clients of the bankers I did meet.
With a little thought and planning, you will be able to apply this to your business as well. Look for opportunities to connect with a gateway individual. It takes work, and you have to ask a lot of questions, but it will pay off.
For my next post, I’ll discuss networking etiquette. Until then, Decide, Commit, Conquer.
Francisco J. Acosta
Executive Vice President
Internal Business Consulting
212-330-0311 Phone
www.ibcglobal.net
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass.” Paul J. Meyer
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My good friend and World Class Networking Expert Carol Deckert will be interviewed on the Dr. Sally Show Monday April 14 at 3pm EST.
Carol is an amazing women with a lifetime of helping people to make connections. She is a coach/speaker/internet maven. I know that we will have a fun and informative show about online and face-to-face networking.
If you cannot tune into the show live at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drsallywitt, then make sure and download it anytime later to get the great information that Carol will share.
Carol’s website is http://www.runlancaster.com/. She also has a blog to share at http://runlancaster.com/blog/
Her well connected Linked In profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/caroldeckert .
I am proud to present this great program to you on the Dr. Sally Show!
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