Stop Wasting Time Networking
If you ever feel like you’ve wasted time networking, the blog is for you.
As part of my former role as the President of Rainmakers Marketing Group, I taught a semi-monthly seminar called Creating a Word of Mouth Marketing Machine. At the beginning of the seminar, I ask “what roadblocks are holding you back from creating success in relationship marketing?”
Every session, somebody says “managing my networking time!”
So, here it is, 6 keys on how to stop wasting time while networking.
1. Do your initial one-on-one’s over the phone - It takes you 30-minutes to leave your office and drive to Panera, and then another 30-minutes to drive back and get resituated to work. If you aren’t certain that the person you’re meeting with is going to make you money, have your initial meeting over the phone. You can have 3 times as many meetings, and are guaranteed to spend your quality face-time with relationships that generate revenue.
2. Set an agenda for your meeting - I love hearing about your kids, dogs, and recent trip to Idaho, but what I really care about during an initial one-on-one is whether or not we share the same target market, are part of the same life/business event, are part of the same client conversation, have a similar sales cycle, and are best of breed. Those are the primary items that will make a good strategic relationship. Second to that is us getting along as networking buddies. Let’s save all of the relationship building personal stuff for our future or social meetings, because frankly, I don’t even know if we’ll see each other again.
3. Only meet with strategic relationships - Have you ever finished a one-on-one and thought, “what a waste of time”, or “if one more person tries to sell me Agel…” If you want to eliminate those thoughts, only do one-on-ones with people who see the same clients that you do. In other words, only meet with potential strategic partners, becuase they’re the ones who will make you money. PS – only attending networking events that are chocked full of your potential strategic partners also falls in line with this suggestion as well. I bet that will save you 30-50% on your one-on-one time right there.
4. Use customer relationship marketing software (CRM) - Using a CRM system like AddressTwo or SalesForce will save you a ton of follow up time. Both of these systems allow you to set automatic reminders of when you need to follow up with someone, connect to social media, and can send an email from inside of the software. If you’re using an excel spreadsheet or Outlook to store your contact database, trash it, grow up, and get a CRM like a big boy business owner, so you can save some time.
5. Block time to network - Networking takes time – especially if you’re good at it. Take a moment at the end of every week to block out time in the next week for networking events, one-on-ones (and ONLY schedule the one-on-ones during your blocked times), data entry, and follow up (aka building bridges). When I was generating $200k a year in revenue for a small business through relationship marketing, over 60% of my time was spent on networking activities.
6. Just say no - If you’re asked to be on a referral team or do a one-on-one that isn’t a strategic fit, just say no. Tell them the reason is becuase you’re, “making a concerted effort to only meet with people who see the same client I do”. If the person requesting your time is a really good fit, they’ll fight for your time. If not, they’ll back down, and you can instantly introduce them to someone who will be a good strategic fit.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To receive your free trial of a software that will track your referral revenue, centralize social media updates, and automate email/text/postcard marketing, click here.
Uncovering Hidden Jobs FAST
Business Week, FOX News, Harvard, Yale, and Cornell have all reported or conducted studies that suggest 60-80% of jobs are found through networking.
The days of turning to the classifieds to find a new job are long gone.
The wave of wholly effective online job boards has also passed. Employers who advertise on job sites get inundated with resumes, don’t have time to go through them, and find disconnected unqualified candidates. As a result, many of the best hiring managers have forsaken job boards altogether.
The best jobs are not advertised, and the best candidates are not responding to mass advertisement.
Job connections are now made through networking!
How do I Leverage Networking to Find a Job?
There are 3 types of networking:
- Direct
- Six Degrees of Separation
- Strategic
Direct networking involves building relationships directly with your target employer. An example of this could involve going to your industry’s trade association and networking with members who could be potential employers.
Six degrees of separation networking is based on the premise that everyone knows someone that knows someone, and if you ask enough people for who you need to meet, you’ll find them within six asks. If you’re networking through general community events, service clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis, etc.), or church, you are using the six degrees method.
Strategic networking places the focus on building relationships with people who are engaged with your target employer over and over again. An example of this for job seekers, is partnering with recruiters. They work with dozens of employers who are looking for candidates just like you.
Here is the skinny on how the type of networking you select impacts your job search:
Direct and six-degrees networking yields results – but only in small unpredictable quantities.
Engaging multiple strategic partners can bring your search dozens of leads over and over again.
The key to finding a job through networking is partnering with professions who see your target employer, and are willing to open up their contact database to you.
How Will I Know Who to Partner With?
To find the right strategic partners, first you have to know your target market.
A job seekers target market is defined as their ideal role.
Get crystal clear about what your perfect job looks like.
If you settle for anything, you’ll get nothing. They key to finding a job quickly is knowing exactly what you want and going after it with every bit of vigor that you have.
As you brainstorm, remember to consider:
- Which industry would you like to work in?
- Which position is best for you?
- What are your minimum income requirements?
- What would you like your position and earnings to be within 3 years?
- How soon would you like to get started if offered a job?
What are the top 5 must have’s for your perfect next job?
Since you now know what you want, you can effectively share it with potential partners.
The second part of knowing who to partner with is identifying who regularly sees the hiring managers at your ideal job.
Here’s an example to get you started. This concept all starts with your target market, and who else sells to them.
McDonald’s has toys, play places, and clowns, and markets to kids, right?
Who else sells to kids?
Daycares, Disney, pre-schools, toy stores, amusement parks, Gymboree, Nickelodeon…
McDonald’s is smart. Every time a new Disney movie comes out, they feature the toy in their Happy Meals. Disney cross-pollinates its client base with McDonald’s, and both of their ships rise in the tide.
Now, take the hiring manager for your ideal job – who else is selling to them?
Write down a few of your ideas.
Typically recruiters, HR consultants, payroll sales people, group health sales people, personality test sales people, temporary staffing companies, and other applicants are also calling on hiring managers.
Your job is to go to networking events, scour your database, and search LinkedIn to find people in your desired industry that fit the categories above.
How Do I Find and Engage My Strategic Job Hunt Partners?
If you know who your job hunt partners are, you’re good to go. The next step is to actively pursue them, build a relationship with someone you can mutually benefit, and begin trading notes on who to contact at the right places.
Here are some simple ways to use strategic networking to find a job:
- Join HR associations – Most association meetings can be attended a few times as a guest for a nominal event fee. Don’t worry about selling yourself too hard, just figure out how you can help the HR managers achieve their goals.
- Partner with HR consultants – HR consultants are in and out of multiple companies that are hiring. Focus on connecting them with MORE hiring managers who could use their services. The consultants will return the favor by introducing you to jobs that could be a good fit.
- Partner with recruiters – You can partner with recruiters who can help you get a job. You can also use them as a resource to break into see hiring managers who have been unresponsive. Send a recruiter the contact information of your target company, and see what they can do to get you an interview.
- Partner with other job seekers – What? Partner with my competition? Refer your friends to great positions that may have been a poor fit, and have them do the same thing for you!
- Join employment groups –Find other job seekers to partner with, and lead the charge of keeping the energy light and enthusiastic within the group.
- Email Your Professional and Personal Database – Don’t just send an email to your friends that says, “Hey guys, just got fired. Let me know if you hear of any good jobs!” Lame… Send the description of your ideal job to your contacts, so they know exactly how to spot the right role for you.
- Attend Job Fairs – Use job fairs to speak with hiring managers, and remember to also connect with other job seekers and potential strategic partners.
- Serve on Not-for-Profit Boards and Committees – Join a cause that you care about whose volunteer members are closely aligned with your industry. You never know what opportunities will come of it!
- Join LinkedIn Discussion Boards – If you share high quality content in the discussion boards, readers will view your profile (that states you’re seeking a new position), notice what you are open to job opportunities, and reach out to you because you appear to be an EXPERT.
- Attend Trade Associations – Consider partnering with a vendor member who knows all of the members that are decision makers. The vendor member can make neutral introductions to all of the right people for you.
Finding a new position through networking is fun and easy. Using the strategy above will add focus to your relationship building, and will help you land your next perfect job quickly!
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To learn more, click here.
25 Things You’re Lying To Yourself About Regarding Hiring
Let’s keep sales recruiting simple. Hiring is easy. Follow your gut, hire for rolodex, make sure there’s a culture match, and disqualify people quickly.
Just in case you need more details, here are 25 things you’re lying to yourself about regarding hiring:
- Rolodex matters, and is the only thing that will get someone started when selling for a small business.
- Are they late? Disqualify them. The excuse doesn’t matter.
- See poor grammar in their resume? They’ll do the same thing in emails and proposals to clients.
- Did they just tell you a dirty joke? smh…
- Do you have an uneasy feeling about this person? Pay attention to it.
- Cold calling is NOT the answer to your sales problem.
- Only post an ad on Monster or Career Builder if you want to experience the onslaught of unqualified resumes that don’t match your requirements and forget that they even applied to your posting.
- Invest money in hiring. You get what you spend.
- Your next hire is two introductions from relationships away.
- Expect to spend at least 2 months from search start to hire date.
- Ask applicants for referrals to other applicants.
- Straight commission only works if you have a short sales cycle, established product and/or company, proven sales system and KPIs, and a documented training system.
- Create a documented sales strategy that applicants can believe in.
- All applicants lie. All of them.
- All references lie. Yes, all of them.
- Personality testing is not pass/fail. Only use it as PART of the entire applicant picture.
- Test everyone.
- Just because they’re hot and a woman doesn’t mean that they will sell.
- Stop being lazy. Pick up the phone and sell. Yes, I’m talking to you Mr. Business Owner.
- Save old applications. They’ll be looking for a new job in 6 months.
- Make applicants PROVE that they can do the job.
- Hiring is a numbers game.
- Over-pay for OUTSTANDING talent.
- After hiring, you will know whether or not someone is a good fit within the first 30-days.
- Is the person that you’re about to hire over-qualified and will be underpaid at your company? Don’t hire them. They’re taking your job as filler.
- *BONUS* – Do they smell? All of your clients and prospects will notice too.
- *BONUS* – Everyone leaves. Everyone.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To learn more, click here.
Indianapolis Downtown Taps Outsourced Sales Force Principal for Economic Development Advice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Indianapolis Downtown Inc. Seeks Economic Development Direction from Outsourced Sales Force Principal
Indianapolis, IN (March 18, 2013) – Indianapolis Downtown Inc. (IDI), the marketing, development, and operations oversight organization for downtown Indianapolis, recently tapped Outsourced Sales Force owner, Jamar Cobb-Dennard, for the economic advisory group of its Velocity planning program.
“Downtown Indianapolis needs the fresh wind of a new vision,” said Cobb-Dennard. “It is smart of IDI to ask its constituents to be part of the planning process that will shape the development of the next generation of downtown Indianapolis’ growth.”
According to a letter from IDI, Velocity is a co-created, five-year strategic action plan for Downtown Indianapolis that is guided and activated by collaborating organizations. It will result in a refreshed vision, framework, and action plan that can guide future improvements and focus our investments in Downtown. Indianapolis Downtown Inc. in collaboration with a diverse group of civic, corporate and community leaders launched the initiative earlier this year. It will accelerate great ideas that have already been developed, prioritize ongoing challenges, and encourage us to innovate as we move into a new investment cycle and improved economic climate. There is more information about Velocity at http://indyvelocity.com.
The economic development group will address attracting and growing Downtown jobs, businesses, and investment. Topics include office, retail, hospitality, and other investment sectors that make up a vibrant twenty-first century Downtown. It will also consider how to best attract the necessary talent to support these sectors and enhance economic competitiveness.
The Velocity planning meetings begin in April 2013.
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Generating Hundreds of Leads at Trade Shows
Trade shows can be a fantastic way to connect your product to the marketplace.
They can also be a massive waste of time and money.
Before you go to any trade show, you must create a plan of ATTACK!
Here are the 5 trade show planning tips to keep in mind:
1. What is Your Objective? – In other words – what would you like to accomplish by hosting a booth at the trade show? Is it ‘market awareness’, lead generation, appointment setting, or relationship building. Be clear about what you want to get out of your time and investment.
2. How Will You Attract People to Your Booth? – Attendees at a trade show are about as focused as a 2-year-old at a carnival. Take into account the other booths visual impact, the noise of the trade show floor, the excitement from colleagues they haven’t seen in months, and the free food, and you start to realize that you have to come up with an attractive attention-getter to gain traffic at your booth. Sitting in a chair at the back of the booth won’t bring you business. What are you going to say or do to grab people’s attention and draw them in to have a conversation with you?
3. How Will People Opt-In to How They Would Like to Engage With You? – This is also known as info-collection. What mechanism are you going to use to collect booth attendee (not general trade show attendee) information. Is it a handwritten form? What about a fancy iPad app? Even more important, what is going to COMPEL people to fill out that form? Are you doing a drawing for prizes, or a free demo of cutting-edge software? Finally, make sure that attendees have a way to opt-in to a deeper relationship with you. This may be through your email newsletter or blog, a phone appointment or web demonstration, or by giving you a referral.
4. What is Your Post-Show Follow Up Strategy – After the glitz and glamour of the show are gone, what are you going to do to engage your visitors after the show? When will you make follow-up calls to potential leads? When are you going to send the free report or case study you promised in #3? How are you going to turn your contacts into green-gold?
5. What is Your Measure of Success – Quantify how many leads, contact, connections, referrals, verbal commitments, or contracts you want to walk out of the trade show with. This measure will tell you how successful you were or weren’t, and what you’ll need to change in your strategy to achieve that result.
Trade shows can be fun, and provide a great boost to lead generation. We have also all seen them be a tiring week of no benefit if we haven’t approached them with the right strategy.
What are some interesting ways that you have attracted people your booth?
Have any good ideas on how to get people to opt-in for follow-up?
Please share!
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To learn more, click here.
What to Do When ‘Caught’ at a Networking Event
Have you ever found yourself ‘caught’ at a networking event; talking to someone who is of no value to you, your business, or your network?
It has happened to everyone, and the following tips will help you back yourself out of the networking corner.
Tony Scelzo teaches that there are 4 types of people at networking events:
1. People who could be a good strategic partner.
2. People who could be a good client for your business.
3. People who could be a good client or strategic partner for someone else in your network.
4. Fluff, or people who do not add value to your network or your business.
Now, fluff aren’t bad people, they’re just not a fit for what you need to be a productive networker.
Here are some of the strategies we teach our clients to use when they’re caught in a value-less conversation:
1. Ask for an introduction to someone else in the room – It’s easy to say, “It has been really great to meet you. I would love to meet someone in ‘X’ industry. Who do you know in the room who fits that?”
2. Introduce them to someone else – Find someone who could be a good strategic partner for the fluff and say, “You know what? I have the perfect introduction for you. C’mon, let me introduce you to…” As you say the last part, start walking and motion for the fluff to follow you.
3. Politely excuse yourself – If all else has failed, it’s time to leave. Simply say, “It has been great getting to know you. I am going to meet a few other people before the next part of the program. Here’s my card – stay in touch.”
Using these tactics can be tough – especially when we’re trying to be “Hoosier nice”.
Don’t worry about hurting someones feelings. Be polite, and accomplish what you came to that event to accomplish – finding strategic and client contacts for yourself and your partner’s.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To learn more, click here.
How to Control Incoming Sales
Your sales people will hate you for this, but your top line will love it – pipeline management.
Pipeline management is the process of reviewing and holding your team accountable to potential sales that are in the process of closing.
When you pull your team together every week to review your pending deals, you all will refresh yourselves on what needs to happen next to get closer to the sale, identify how and where you need help to close the deal, keep your customer data updated, and have control of your incoming sales forecast.
Here is an example of what a pipeline report could look like:
| Salesperson | Company | Product | Anticipated Close Date | Last Touch Date | Stage in Sales Process | Value in $ |
| Salesperson | Company | Product | Anticipated Close Date | Last Touch Date | Stage in Sales Process | Value in $ |
| Salesperson | Company | Product | Anticipated Close Date | Last Touch Date | Stage in Sales Process | Value in $ |
You can usually pull a report like this from your customer relationship management (CRM) system. If you don’t have one, you can get a free trial here.
The following are instructions on how to do a pipeline review.
The salesperson who owns the pipeline reads each line and tells everyone the:
- Company name
- Product
- Expected close date
- Last completed step
- Next step
Everyone else in the group listens for and challenges them on:
- When their last touch with the client was
- What the result was of the last touch
- Why the deal is not closed (if it is at the appropriate stage of the sales process)
- Expected close date
- Appropriate next steps
- What you can do to help
When you do this, you’ll immediately find that your team follows up with clients more consistently, and they’re always prepared for this meeting. No one wants to show up to a pipeline review as a dud.
As a sales manager, keep an eye on the value of your sales person’s pipeline. This will tell you how much you can forecast for monthly or quarterly sales.
If there isn’t enough in the pipeline at the beginning of the month, push for more lead generation.
If sales are low at the end of the month, challenge your people to close a higher percentage of their pipeline before month-end.
If you’ve ever felt like you have no control over incoming sales, a weekly pipeline review is the answer.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To receive your free trial of a software that will track your referral revenue, centralize social media updates, and automate email/text/postcard marketing, click here.
Is Your Follow Up System Costing You Clients?
We’re all guilty of it; you get busy and drop the ball on follow up.
How many potential sales has late or missed follow up cost you?
We recently moved into a massive mack-daddy office space downtown. In the process of selecting a place, I challenged myself to find 10 available offices within a 2 block radius of my condo.
Well, I found 11, but came up with only a few impressive sales processes.
A couple of leasing agents responded with an attitude, as if my need for 1000 s.f. or less wasn’t worth their time. Well, it probably wasn’t.
A few never even called back. I mean, nada palabra.
One in particular shines the worst at his best. He scheduled an appointment with me, didn’t show. Then called me back later to explain that the person he sent in his stead skipped out on the appointment. He then sent the maintenance man up to unlock the space for me. Wow. Commentary ends here.
The best sales job was done by the leasing agent at the space we selected. He met me on time, gave me a tour of the building and told stories about its history. He gave me space to visualize how my business would fit in the office, answered all of my questions, and followed up after the appointment in a (somewhat) timely manner. Office space, sold.
How are you and your sales people doing at following up with new opportunities and managing them in the pipeline. Are you forgetting about people? Are you so busy that you have dropped the ball?
Never get too busy for new business. If you are, figure out a way to handle more. Your customers, and your business deserve it.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a sales and marketing expert who helps companies without a sales force have a sales force. To receive your free trial of a software that will track your referral revenue, centralize social media updates, and automate email/text/postcard marketing, click here.
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