OK, I’ve heard of it? What should I do next?

Probably most of us have heard about Linked In. Many of us have a profile and some connections but the most common statement I hear about LI is something like: “I received a few invitations to connect and I have a profile but I don’t know what to do now”. So, we end up with a dead profile, couple of connections and it never goes anywhere.

So, what’s the point?

I encourage you to look into Linked In as a means of practicing networking best practice. Huh? What does that mean?

Think about LI as a tool. Once again, we have talked about marketing tools here before and encouraged you not to rush straight to the favorite tool of the moment. LI is a networking tool and all the rules of face to face networking also apply here. Namely: Give to get (give value and information and don’t expect to join a group to harvest leads from day one), it requires commitment, you need a goal, you need to know why you are doing it, it really helps to be genuinely curious about other people.

How does that work on line?

LI is set up to allow you to find people of interest and therefore you should complete your profile as fully as possible. This means that you have to complete a summary of what you do. Bearing in mind this is a business site primarily, this means you have the chance to write about your business. Hint: the rules of marketing apply here - this is a means of grabbing attention therefore the focus should be on the issues of your client and not a list of your services and how great you are.

How to add value - there is a section called “Answers”. Search it for keywords in your area of expertise and give freely of your thoughts and experience. Give is the operative word here - share your knowledge and people will be more interested in you. Again, this can’t be self serving. Please don’t go into a question and write: “I can help you on this, here’s my website” as I don’t think that will work well.

Enter a conversation - you can ask questions too. When you get answers you should enter a brief dialogue with the person who responded and thank them. They may be future partners with you.

Revisit goals

I’m often asked something along the lines of : “what business have you had from linked In?” This is a fair question but difficult to answer directly. I know some people who can point directly to such business. In my case I know of contacts made that have attracted attention and got us talking which led to business. I know people who spoke to me directly after viewing my profile on LI. Here’s the thing for me - that is my goal. I want to be more visible and have people develop an extra way to contact me. LI isn’t the only thing I do by any means but as a tool it fits well into my marketing toolkit. It may well be worth checking out for you too.

Get motivated!

Yesterday was the day the “Get Motivated” seminar rolled through Kansas City. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go but it was very well attended to the extent that it snarled traffic in downtown KC. I have heard good things about it and it is a good time, with the current economy, to hear some upbeat messages. There is a wider point here and that involves the use of seminars as a marketing tool. How effective is it? What should the expectations be when giving a seminar?

Make sure you have done the preparation work

Remember that seminars are a marketing tool, and we have talked here before about the dangers of starting with the tools! So, some planning is required: Who is your target audience? What message will be of most value to them? What do you want them to do as a result of attending? What, and how clear is the call to action?

Most people are savvy enough to realize that their world is not going to be made 100% OK by attending a seminar. However they are looking for some useful information of real value, and certainly don’t expect a full 90 minutes of a hard sell. This principles of marketing apply therefore: You need to grab attention, develop trust, give value, and have a call to action. With all these things in place your attendees will expect some selling - that is part of the call to action. However they will also expect value, useful information and a clear way to opt out of the selling phase.

So what is the challenge?

Seminars are really fun to do ASSUMING YOU LIKE PRESENTING. If you don’t, make a commitment to yourself to get into a positive mindset and practice/train yourself. Often the challenges is to make the material relevant so that if an attendee never talks to you again, they still get value from the material. Be generous with the information you give and don’t worry you are giving away too much.

There is a challenge in getting people there. That is a big subject in itself that I will tackle in another post! Perhaps the most common problem I see (and yes, I have done this myself) is assuming that giving great information will be enough to have people flocking to you at the end to give you their cards and/or hire you. The key thing is:

Having a clear way forward

Go back to your planning phase and ask yourself again: “What do I want people to do? What is the point of the seminar?” It may be to get a list of folks to follow up with. Perhaps you have a program in which you want them to register interest. It could be that the seminar is purely to establish you as a speaker. Whatever it is, make sure that you tell them what to do if they want to explore your ideas further, and how to opt out if they don’t. THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO HARD SELL THEM or lock the door preventing them leaving until they surrender a card.

Keep in the marketing flow of your business - if you want them to give you a card, what will they get? What is your promise to them? Many times I have presented and it went well and then all the energy faded and interest didn’t turn into action. Make sure you are clear how seminars fit into your overall strategy and then they can be a great and fun tool!

There is a great test of how effective your initial marketing message is being received. As we have discussed before, the key to establishing interest in prospects is engaging the emotional “stuff” they are dealing with. How do you do that? By tailoring your message to the pain they are suffering and/or a problem they want solving.

Engaging interest is vital!

How will you know when you have mentioned something that resonates with your prospect? They will ask you to elaborate, ask you “How do you do that?” or something similar. The response you don’t want is a blank look or worse, a vague: “Hmmm. Interesting.”

The “so what test”

The next time you go to a networking meeting, listen to what people are saying. Process the message in terms of the emotion that it generates in you. If not emotion, then a genuine feeling that you want to know more. You probably won’t want to ask this directly since it is rather abrupt, but ask yourself if “So what?” is an appropriate question.

For example: “We have been in business for 25 years” - So what?

“We have won numerous customer service awards” - So what?

See how it works? The so what question seems very valid. Specifically it is appropriate because it means, so how does that apply to me? Is it so appropriate as a response to the following statement: “We help small businesses owners frustrated that they are paying too much in personal income tax”.

Again, it is about them

Whilst you can still answer “so what?” I submit that it is far less likely. It is clear who the message is intended for, what pain (frustration) they are suffering and for what reason. The fact that the message includes “help” implies action and begs the question: “How do you help them?” Now you are into a meaningful conversation (at least potentially!)

The key thing is figuring out the pain, frustration, emotion that your prospects are feeling. Here’s a clue to how to figure that out if you don’t know - ask your clients how you help them and what RESULTS you have achieved with them.

Try the “so what?” test on your marketing message. How is it working for you?

What do you think about when you hear the term “marketing?”

For many (including the “old” me) my mind was great at throwing out images of young men and women dressed in sharp suits disappearing into a smoke filled room to come up with innovative ideas, slogans, logos and tag lines to define whatever was their product or service as the “next greatest thing”.

OK, now I have revealed my old belief system

If you have something similar in your mind you may not feel, I certainly didn’t, that such a picture describes who you are. However we all know that once in business we do have to market our services to some extent, otherwise who knows we are there?

The first task of marketing: GAIN ATTENTION

It isn’t the only thing, but it is the most important first step. When you think about it, that is actually what the smart ad, the snappy logo and the cute tagline is trying to do, GRAB YOUR ATTENTION.

There are are many, many types of business put there but there are some common categories. Perhaps one of the simplest is the difference between businesses that everyone has heard of (e.g. Insurance, Financial planning, Real Estate, Chiropractors) and those that are unfamiliar (Life coach, security consultant etc.)

The challenge for the former group is the reaction: “OK. I know what that is and I already know someone who does that/I don’t need it”

The challenge for the latter group: “OK. I didn’t understand that and I don’t see how that applies to me because I don’t really know what you do”

Get into your prospects world

The challenges, though different in detail are basically the same. How do I, as a service provider, get the prospect to think: “OK, I understand that and yes, I am dealing with that issue - how could you help me?” This is attention getting and you have the chance to do that as soon as you meet someone.

How to do it? It takes practice but thinking along these lines may help:

1. Who is my product or service aimed at? (Be specific)

2. What challenges are they facing?

3. How do I solve those challenges?

Then tune your message to the challenges of your ideal client base. Turn your client attraction message into words they understand, and emotion words at that. Before you work with them are your clients frustrated, angry, confused, scared, uncertain about anything? That could be a good place to start.

Thinking about your client/prospect and what they are dealing with will help you avoid the mistake of talking endlessly about your self and your company. Doing that more or less guarantees that your prospect will not be attracted to your message!

Great book!

Reading is greatly underrated in my view. There are so many things that you can pick up from reading, even in books you really don’t enjoy. It is always worth having your personal view of the world challenged by an author! Right now I am in the middle of:  “What got you here, won’t get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith

As I intimated there are things I disagree with in most books and there are a few here. There is a lot of material of great interest in this book though, much of it having direct relevance to small business marketing. Perhaps the most important nugget I have come across so far is the notion that:

Being smart is a turn on, telling people how smart you are is a turn off (I paraphrase!)

Are you showing off too much?

As a business owner you are probably the world’s foremost expert on your company (I hope that is so). In addition you are likely to be extremely well informed on topics that affect your business and/or the field in which you work. Again, this is an assumption when you own a business, you should be an expert in what you do. It is likely you are passionate about what you do and the difference you want to make.

It can be difficult to reign in that enthusiasm, especially when a prospect demonstrates some interest in what you do. It is very tempting to dazzle them with your expertise. Most of the time we end up talking too much, and talking about ourselves, overtly demonstrating who expert we are.

It’s about them, not you

So how do people get to see and experience how expert you are? It seems counter intuitive to say “talk less” but that is part of it. The other part of it is : “Ask questions”. When you are an expert it is relatively easy to ask perceptive, probing questions. Anything that gets your prospect to talk about him or herself and their challenges is what you are aiming for. Ask them what their challenges are, ask them their opinions and you will find they open up much more.

 Also, they will come away from the encounter thinking much more of you and your expertise than they would have if you spent half an hour telling them about how great you are. It really works! Although it is simple, it isn’t necessarily easy - as Goldsmith writes in his book, there is a difference. With practice, and by listening closely to what others say, you will find that natural curiosity will help you pose perceptive questions.

I encourage reading generally and “What got you here..” is shaping up to be a good read specifically. Here is a link to his blog for anyone interested : Marshall Goldsmith blog

Are you a card collector?

It’s been said (can’t remember where, but I am sure I read it) that a business card is one of the most effective marketing tools you will ever use. Certainly it is hard to imagine going through business life, or life in general without them. Indeed I was planning a quiet day recently and to my endless embarrassment I was caught without my usual supply when asked for one. Note to self: Make sure that never happens again.

So, on balance I agree that your card says a lot about you and your company. However…..I have been to numerous networking events where there was a lot of card collecting going on. In other words people handing out cards and taking them almost as if it were a game - who can give out and/or collect the most by the end of the evening.

Why are we exchanging cards

Try asking that question if you are genuinely not sure of the answer. Many times in the past I have been given a card BEFORE any connection was established or we had discussed where the relationship went next. Of course, cards allow us to connect after the event but, let’s be honest, how often do you go through your card collection and think: “Hmmm. I wonder who that was?”

Left Pocket, Right Pocket

Kevin has a great approach. If he knows why he has a card and what the follow up is it goes into his right pocket and then into his follow up process. Left pocket? Don’t know what the next step is, goes into a stack of cards with no detailed follow up.

Make sure you know why you might want to follow up with a contact. Find out what they do and what their concerns are - is that person a good target/prospect/referral partner/resource for you and what can you do for them? If you find that out at a network meeting, by all means swap cards and agree the next stage of discussion.

Then you will save on cards and make sure more of the ones you give out make it to the right pocket!

Who do you love to work with?

One of the most common mistakes we see small businesses make when they get set up is a head long rush to implement some marketing tools. It seems like a good use of time to get into action straight away. Most of us are “doers” and getting going on activity feels good!

However it is often the route to frustration and wasted money. Why? Well, activity is all very well but without clear focus it is often a wasted effort. If you are not talking to the appropriate audience, such activity is likely to be ignored. The frustration this causes can lead to frequent changes of tactics, more money spent in unrelated activity. This is what we call “episodic marketing” and commonly includes activity such as: brochure, website, direct mail, widely dispersed networking activity, joining of groups etc.

The starting point

It sounds easy, in practice it is harder. However you really need to define, specifically and in a targeted way, who you preferred clients are. Not necessarily the ones who pay best (although that may be part of it) but those you have a passion to help. Those that make your day, that you look forward to speaking with. You may be able to find them in your client base now (hopefully you have at least one!) but if you are new in business then it is those that you envisaged helping when you started out.

Spending some time on this will help you avoid the excesses of episodic marketing. When you know who you want to help you can define their problems, how your services make that better, where these people hang out, what they read, what they want and so on.

Sounds easy but it takes work! Spend some time defining who these people are and you won’t regret that time!

Knowing something doesn’t help your perception as an expert

I love to read. There is so little time and so much to read I always seem to have a pile of unread books to work my way through. There is a lot of value in the wisdom that comes from books. One of my favorites:

“Made to Stick - Why some ideas survive and others die by Chip and Dan Heath”

I highly recommend it generally, but it has specific relevance to marketing. In particular there is a concept that I see demonstrated again and again, called the “curse of knowledge”.  I paraphrase (and you can hear from the experts in their blog) but this curse is essentially this: when we know something it is almost impossible to remember what it is like not to know it. As a result we become poor communicators

When were you last confused by an “expert”?

In my experience this has proven true in marketing messages. Trying to demonstrate how expert you are by telling prospects all about you and the unique, technical things you do is a guaranteed turn off. If you are a financial planner I probably know that you are very familiar with your products and the state of the market (at least I hope so!). However a detailed explanation of everything you do is not what I am looking for and may actually repel my interest. Often this is the case with very knowledgeable folks with a great deal of experience - lawyers for example.

What about me?

The fact is most people are more concerned that you understand them, than that they impress you with deep knowledge of a particular subject. This can be a stretch. Of course you need to have that expertise to be effective but for a MARKETING point of view, showing that off is counter productive

The answer? You will be credited with a lot more expertise when you ask perceptive questions based on your knowledge that really get your prospect thinking, and shows them you understand them. To get there you need to understand the profile, preferences, hopes, fears and pain that your ideal client is experiencing. Tapping into this via insightful questions, and giving them information that helps them address it is far more effective than telling them all that you do and showing off how much you know.

Remember what it is like when you didn’t have the knowledge you have - does the jargon you use confuse rather than attract?

Are you prepared to give your message at any time?

I am struggling a bit this week as I just returned from a trip to the Philippines. Partly this was a vacation, partly a trip to see relatives and partly (the most rewarding part) was charitable work with a local hospital and school. This is the reason that there has been no blog from me for a couple of weeks. However, as always it seems, there was a marketing lesson I learned in an unexpected place. In this case, it was on a plane.

So, what do you do?

The flight from Kansas City to Manila is a long one. You can’t get there non-stop. We went: Kansas City to Chicago to Tokyo to Manila. I don’t know exactly how many hours that is in the air but it’s a lot. It was about 30 minutes before landing in the Philippines, around 27 hours since I last slept that I fell into conversation with the person in the seat next to me. She asked me the classic question: “What do you do?”

We had a great conversation but I am not sure that I answered her question very effectively even though I have been asked it hundreds of times and like to think that I am always prepared for it.

What’s the lesson?

My travelling colleague was based in Manila so may not have been a good target for me but her business was definitely one of my target types. I was so tired and not thinking in a business mindset due to the nature of the trip but so what? We were having a nice conversation and there was always the chance we could do business together and I allowed my guard to slip and was taken by surprise.

This is not a beat myself up issue at all. It is a learning point - you never know. You really don’t. The next person you meet might be your perfect client/referral partner/whatever. Make sure that you are always prepared to answer that question - it takes some up front work but it is well worth it.

What is the first marketing requirement for a business?

I think that the answer to this question probably used to be (and still may be): A brochure. For many businesses this was seen as essential on a number of levels. Most importantly it was the primary means to “get the word out”. Something tangible for our service business that we could leave with prospects/send to them/leave on the side at trade shows. Perhaps maybe equally important: It makes us feel good about the business - it is real and here is the proof.

What is it really saying?

Most businesses do a lot of things. Even with a clear idea of our ideal client profile, what we do for them and so on, it is very difficult to summarize everything in print. There is always something else, perhaps we add a service and then the brochure is redundant. What if we move? Don’t forget that we get the best deal on printing the more items are printed - so what do we do with the 5000 brochures we have left over when we move?

Thankfully a lot of these problems are minimized or avoided with the advent of the internet and our ability to get our message out that way. However, how many businesses simply replicate their brochure on line. So, even though we can now change the website as often as we want, are we making the same mistakes I often see in brochures.

What mistakes are you talking about?

A brochure can be effective but, be honest. How many times is it simply a list of services that relies on the reader to make the connection with their own business or personal issue? In an effort to make sure all the bases are covered brochures are often very wordy. Sometimes brochures are handed out with an apology and or disclaimer:

“This is a little out of date now as we have changed a couple of people and added a few services, but it should give you a good idea of what we are about”

The problem is that this is exactly the same issue that can befall a website. In other words it becomes an online brochure with no better insight for the prospect than a printed example - except more frequent updates. It still comes from the perspective of the business itself or, worse, the webmaster who controls the site. What is the fist page that most users are directed to? Yup - “About us”

I am not saying there is no need to define what and who you are as a business but it shouldn’t be the first thing, or the center of the site. Make sure that you have grabbed attention from someone who has landed on the site before you start telling them everything you do. How do you do that? Think in terms of your ideal client -what issues are they wrestling or struggling with? This will be a far more compelling reason for them to explore your site and discover your unique value.

Of course, you can also take that approach with a brochure - should you decide, after reviewing your marketing apporach that you even need one!