Networking: An Example
November 14, 2009
The other morning in my BNI meeting I had the following experience:
I saw a visitor signing in whom I recognised. “Allan, how are you?” I greeted him as I approached. He barely had put the pen down from signing in before I asked, “you are a business analyst… is that right?”
He affirmed my memory.
“There is some one you should meet,” I lead him to another group member and ask him a question on the way. “Do you ever work with business owners that are interested in buying other businesses?”
“Oh yeah,” he replied.
While walking him over to the business broker I saw the groups office furniture guy. That reminded me that my Squidoo page, http://www.squidoo.com/business-coach-chuck, had a link on it to a furniture store. “Brian,” I asked him, “do you have a way I can use affiliate marketing on my sight to sell your furniture?” He had this dear in the headlights look about him. So, I turned to Chris, the web guy. “Chris, do you know how to get some one set up for affiliate marketing??”
“Yes,” he assured me.
“Could you talk to Brian about getting his business set up to do aaffiliate.”
“Sure.”
I left Chris and Brian behind, and moved along to Charles, our Business Broker and introduced he and the Allan, the business analyst. Once they were fully engaged, I took off to meet some one new.
Coach Chuck
Networking is Different than what You Do For a Living
April 26, 2009
At a networking event, a real estate lawyer and another person were talking.
“I was thinking about investing in homes in foreclosure or underwater with their mortgage … you know; try to figure out a way to make some money out of this tough economic environment.”
The attorney responded, “The problem is …” and proceeded to put the person to whom he was talking to asleep with an astute legal description of all the associated legal issues.
I inserted myself into the conversation and asked the real estate lawyer if he knew of a realtor who would know how to help a client navigate these difficult waters.
“Oh, sure,” he said.
“Who is it?”
He told me.
Being as that we were in a networking situation and they know me as a coach, I asked them if they minded if I rewound their conversation and demonstrated what a good networking conversation would look like. They agreed.
So, the first guy repeated what he was looking for.
I pretended to be the lawyer and said, “I know a great real estate agent that can help you with that, would you like to talk with him/her?”
That is a conversation that might actually result in business which is the business of networking. Networking and whatever you do for a living are two different skills. When entering a networking environment, remember, this is not the place to demonstrate everything you know, but rather, the place to connect and help other do the same.
Coach Chuck
Networking With a Passion
April 26, 2009
Networking, for the most part, needs to be fun. The stiff lipped amongst may ask, “Why does it need to be fun?”
Simply put, networking is about making personal connection and we are the most ready, willing and able to make that personal connection when we are having fun.
So, if there is something you love or enjoy very much (such as antiquing, motorcycling, quilting, private aviation, art, fine wines, religious and philanthropic activities) and if the demographics of the other people that enjoy those activities fit the profile of your prospective client, get more involved and have more fun. Obviously, this is a group where your networking will consist more of simply showing up, being an active high profile participant and finding some way of letting it be known what you do. This is not an area where others would appreciate being marketed to in a direct way, because, like you, this is where they come to relax. But, over the long term, being a valued member of this social group and letting them know what you do and that you are always open to referrals, is often a great way to build a high quality network.
When you meet others in your social groups that are interested in building their network, be helpful to them in their endeavors. This creates a networking friendly atmosphere with the primary focus on Fun. And when we are having fun, personal connections are easy to make.
Coach Chuck
Networking and the Personal Connection
April 26, 2009
Networking is how we develop a sales team through the process of personal connections, by building purposeful relationships. To be an effective networker, we are just as committed to being on other peoples’ sales teams as we are in building our own. That means. That means we listen to, pay attention to and focus on what other people need. That is how the personal connection is made.
If we actually listen to some one, we may be the only person that day, or for some people, much longer, who have actually paid attention to what they are saying. Further, in this age of e-mail, junk mail, pay per click, twitter, digital billboard, we all have the experience of a never ending supply of people trying to extract something from us. What a breath of fresh air it is when some one actually wants to help. If they do the same for you, then there is a possibility that a real relationship can be formed.
Coach Chuck
What is a Business Coach: and What do they do?
November 17, 2007
What is a business coach? What is the process and what could you expect were you to hire a business coach? Frankly, that is a question that you are going to need to ask the individual coach. There are many different backgrounds and educations for coaches. Some have coaching accreditation. As for myself, my educational background is in psychology and counseling. This combined with my extensive business experience informs and has helped me to create an effective and individualized coaching strategy.
I have a masters in clinical psychology/counseling where I was educated in both the theory and the practice of assessing human behavior as well as how to aide people to achieve desired results. My experience in mental health is very broad and is combined with 19 years business experience in the financial markets. The specific experience in mental health that informs my methods more than any others is experience is working with families. The family is the basic social unit. The dynamics that occur in families form the basic components of in the rest of our social life, especially in our work life. Additionally, small businesses are often family owned. Even if they are not family owned, the personal lives of the owners and the work life of these owners are inescapably entwined.
My coaching method would begin with an understanding of where you see yourself right now. This sounds simple enough and sometimes it is. Most of the time, however, it is not. Were it simple you would not be seeking a business coach. Your business life does not stand in isolation from the rest of your life, so when we are assessing the starting point, we get a thorough understanding of the rich context of your current situation.
Next, we’d like to look at where you would like to end up. This is broken down into a few areas. First of all, we look at how you think things should be right now, but aren’t. This is not long term at all. In fact, you might be gasping for air right now and before any planning can be done, we need to address the current situation. Dealing with current situation may or may not be a significant issue. It almost always takes longer than the business owner originally anticipates. But, laying the foundation is key to moving forward.
From this foundation, a vision for the business has the where-with-all to emerge. And, emerge it must. A vision is more than just figuring out what the business should do. We dig deep. Business is hard. Things happen. Economy happens. Employees happen. All kinds of things happen. Imagine coming home from the beach on a summer Sunday evening. The traffic is insane. Imagine it comes to a stop. There has been a disaster. No one is going anywhere. What do you want to do then? Most people at that point just want to get home. I’ve never heard of any one in a situation like this simply saying, “Ah screw it! Traffic is really bad. I’m not going home. That would be too hard?” Can you imagine?
We attempt to tap into and encourage your organic and natural vision. In order to get through the traffic jams of business life, your vision must be as certain to you as your home is.
And then, we look at the obstacles between now and your vision. And then we devise strategies to succeed.
In actual practice, this is certainly not a straight line. Each of the areas described above influences each of the other areas. You are never completely in one stage or the other.
Something we are doing concurrently to the above process is graphically depicting your business pipeline. How do customers find out about you? How do you (Your business) and your client connect? How is the client treated? What services or products do you provide the client? How, exactly, is that done? How do you get paid? What happens to the money?
If you are providing a product, the same process is done with the product.
We come to understand the ratio requirements of each part of the pipeline to the other parts of the pipeline. How do you generate revenues while at the same time meet new prospective clients? This pipeline is a living, dynamic organism. If you get twice the number of clients, it is not jus a matter of multiplying the rest of the pipeline by two. Different methods of providing service need to be developed for differing volume numbers. We don’t just manage the pipeline. We inspire the pipeline. That is a matter of assessment and transformation all the time.
So, if you were to ask this coach, Coach Chuck, “what is a business coach and what might I expect form the business coaching process?” You would get an answer similar to what I outlined above.
Coach Chuck
973-670-7215
Partnerships and Strategic Partnerships
November 1, 2007
What are the things that you consider when deciding whether or not to go into a partnership? A partnership should be among people that bring complementary strengths together that when combined are greater than the sum of the parts. In other words, the two people, if working together with common goals, will achieve more than they could alone.
The key here is complementary strengths. Take two attorneys that practice different kinds of law who are always finding that they often refer the other attorney’s kind of law out to some one else. This might be the basis of the two attorneys getting together to discuss a partnership. Could the two together gather resources that would allow each more success in their chosen fields? If yes, then the process then is to discover whether or not the partnership is a good fit.
A partnership, like a marriage, is a very comprehensive relationship. Issues of trust, compatibility, shared vision, compatible work ethic and working styles are just as important as whether or not business complement exists.
Very often people will form a partnership based upon the personal issues of trust, compatibility, shared vision, work ethic and style without examining the actual business compliment elements. Other times, people will form a partnership based upon business partnership without examining the more personal issues. Either of these methods have a poor prognosis of success.
Strategic Partnerships however can be entered on a very limited basis. For instance, the two attorneys above may decide that if they share office space and staff and agree to refer each other, without partnerships beyond that, may, in some circumstances, find greater success than trying to bring together a shared vision and so forth. A Financial Planner and Personal fitness trainer may decide to run a workshop together addressing the needs of retirees, without any obligation to each other beyond the workshop.
When contemplating a partnership, consider the question: what makes us a partnership that is greater than what we would be on our own? Further, ask if these accomplishments are greater than what could be accomplished through strategic agreements or partnerships, rather than a full-blown partnership. If the answer to these point to partnership, then carefully consider your commitment of each partner to each of the other partners success and how that would change in good times and bad – to put another way, through sickness and health.
Coach Chuck
973-670-7215
As a summary, partnerships are for those joining complementary strengths between compatible people with a shared vision. This is truly a rare relationship. Strategic partnerships are like dates. One can engage in strategic partnerships with a greater attitude of experimentations.
Networking: After the Intro
August 6, 2007
This article is about the first meeting after the networking event. In other words, you were at a convention, BNI meeting or whatever, met some one with whom you thought there could be mutual benefit. In order to learn how to get up this part you might want to read my article about how to meet people. For now, however, we assume you have met some one and are now meeting with them for the first time.
For the most part, I would suggest something very casual – such as breakfast or coffee in a premium coffee shop. The idea here is to be at ease. That is not a cash register in front of you: don’t make them feel like one. Remember, they were at the same networking event that you were. They were looking for something. Make this about them.
- “Why were you at ________?” Or “What are you looking for?”
Be completely transparent. There is nothing to hide here. You are both business people in search of something.
Now, this is a tough one:
- Listen.
Listen completely.
Be completely okay with not understanding what, exactly they are talking about.
- “When you say ________, what, exactly does that mean?”
No one likes a know it all and most people like to talk about what they do know. When you have really understood them and what they are looking for, stop and reflect. Is there any way you can be helpful? Perhaps there is another networking source you have met to whom you may refer them. If there is, make the referral or suggestion. If this seems to connect with the person, spend just a few minutes on how to make the connection.
Once the other person feels totally listened to and helped or at least been the recipient of your authentic concern, connect something they have talked about, in some way with what you do. Remember, most people completely lose interest when it is not about them. Let’s say the person is an interior designer and you are a financial planner. They say mentioned having spent summers as a youth with an aunt who owned an antique store. You might say something like, “I was impressed by how you were so influenced by your aunt. I was influenced with how poorly my parents planned their future! I think that’s how I got into this field.”
- Then give a very short version of your background as it pertains to what you do.
- An even shorter version of what you do.
If they express curiosity or ask questions, answer with examples that are relevant to them. For instance, with the interior designer, talking to them about what some VP of ABC corporation did is irrelevant, but if you can tell them a success story about a shop owner or some other independent businessperson with whom they can identify, then that will be helpful to them.
At this point, you have some choices – what you want is to either qualify them as potential clients or get a referral. What I do is combine those two into one and ask:
- “Do you know anyone that might benefit from that?”
Maybe it is because I’m generally diligent up to this point, but for me, about 1/3 of those people say something like, “I might want to use your services.” They become prospective clients.
What to do from here is subject for another article, but for me, about ½ of those people actually become clients.
Coach Chuck
973-670-7215
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Go To – www.businesscoachchuck.com. – for details of Coach Chuck’s business coaching services.
