Friday, April 03, 2009
Business Networking - do or die?
In tough times, there is always more pressure on business budgets and businesses begin to strip non-essential expenditure out of the mix. The budget for marketing is an area that often comes under intense scrutiny and there is a temptation to reduce expenditure that seems to have no clear hard benefits attached. There is an article to be written about the importance of marketing out of tough times – this is not it. This is about a small part of marketing – the budget, both of time and money, for business networking.
It is notoriously difficult to quantify what hard benefit comes from networking. Done properly, networking is about casting bread on the water in order for some of it to be returned. It is not a sales activity and the return will come not from the people you speak to but often from those they speak to.
Some networks count referrals and attempt to value them and that is something we all could do, however, how do you identify work that comes via a contact of a contact (of a contact of a contact …) who first met you networking?
There also remains the problem of how you value the intangibles of networking. I wrote about some of these in Fresh Business Thinking last year - Business Is ‘Just Below The Surface’ At Network Meetings. They include such things as education, confidence, business intelligence and camaraderie. All of them are areas where the business could lose an edge if they are not satisfied in some way – especially where the business is a small one and dependent on others to find paid work.
However much you need to focus internally and on sales, you will still need to be seen by others in business. Would you refer business to someone you hadn't seen recently. You might ask yourself ‘are they still referrable?’ or, worse, ‘are they still in business?’
There is a myth that battening down the hatches and riding out the storm is a viable strategy in the current climate. In my opinion, you may ride out the storm but the damage to your reputation and presence may be done and if anyone bothers to open the hatches, they will find a dead company there.
Those are some of the reasons why you'll find me out there networking, connecting, advocating, referring, learning and doing my best to keep business flowing and confidence growing.
You must decide your own approach to the current circumstances of business. But in my view, networking should be one of the activities that you increase rather than decrease over the coming months.
It is notoriously difficult to quantify what hard benefit comes from networking. Done properly, networking is about casting bread on the water in order for some of it to be returned. It is not a sales activity and the return will come not from the people you speak to but often from those they speak to.
Some networks count referrals and attempt to value them and that is something we all could do, however, how do you identify work that comes via a contact of a contact (of a contact of a contact …) who first met you networking?
There also remains the problem of how you value the intangibles of networking. I wrote about some of these in Fresh Business Thinking last year - Business Is ‘Just Below The Surface’ At Network Meetings. They include such things as education, confidence, business intelligence and camaraderie. All of them are areas where the business could lose an edge if they are not satisfied in some way – especially where the business is a small one and dependent on others to find paid work.
However much you need to focus internally and on sales, you will still need to be seen by others in business. Would you refer business to someone you hadn't seen recently. You might ask yourself ‘are they still referrable?’ or, worse, ‘are they still in business?’
There is a myth that battening down the hatches and riding out the storm is a viable strategy in the current climate. In my opinion, you may ride out the storm but the damage to your reputation and presence may be done and if anyone bothers to open the hatches, they will find a dead company there.
Those are some of the reasons why you'll find me out there networking, connecting, advocating, referring, learning and doing my best to keep business flowing and confidence growing.
You must decide your own approach to the current circumstances of business. But in my view, networking should be one of the activities that you increase rather than decrease over the coming months.
Three new Rapport Articles
From the Rapport Magazine Spring 2009 edition -
Debate - Social Media Marketing
Online Social Media (see box for my definition) has been picking up speed in early
2009. Facebook became the largest worldwide social network in mid 2008 and
is growing fast. Micro blogging service Twitter is also growing rapidly with a threefold
increase in traffic this year and with celebrity members like Stephen Fry and
Jonathan Ross giving it profile in the market. Andy Coote asks what that means
for the Personal Development community.
Frank Bourke - Taking NLP into the Mainstream
Meeting Frank Bourke is an experience. His passion
reverberates so strongly and creates such resonance that you want the
conversation to continue indefinitely. As the figurehead of and driving force behind
the NLP Research and Recognition Project, Frank brings all of his wide experience,
determination and wisdom to the development of a scientific process supporting
NLP. Here, he talks to Andy Coote.
Book Review - Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
by Judy Rees & Wendy Sullivan
Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds is a book with a mission. As an ‘essential primer’ in Clean Language, its purpose is to introduce the subject to a very large group of people around the world who could, say the book’s authors Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees, benefit substantially from the technique. Andy Coote
spoke to them for Rapport.
Feedback welcomed.
Andy
Debate - Social Media Marketing
Online Social Media (see box for my definition) has been picking up speed in early
2009. Facebook became the largest worldwide social network in mid 2008 and
is growing fast. Micro blogging service Twitter is also growing rapidly with a threefold
increase in traffic this year and with celebrity members like Stephen Fry and
Jonathan Ross giving it profile in the market. Andy Coote asks what that means
for the Personal Development community.
Frank Bourke - Taking NLP into the Mainstream
Meeting Frank Bourke is an experience. His passion
reverberates so strongly and creates such resonance that you want the
conversation to continue indefinitely. As the figurehead of and driving force behind
the NLP Research and Recognition Project, Frank brings all of his wide experience,
determination and wisdom to the development of a scientific process supporting
NLP. Here, he talks to Andy Coote.
Book Review - Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
by Judy Rees & Wendy Sullivan
Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds is a book with a mission. As an ‘essential primer’ in Clean Language, its purpose is to introduce the subject to a very large group of people around the world who could, say the book’s authors Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees, benefit substantially from the technique. Andy Coote
spoke to them for Rapport.
Feedback welcomed.
Andy
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Networking – Avoidance or Powerful Marketing?
More networking meeting invitations are pouring through my inbox than ever. New networking groups are starting up and existing ones are expanding at an unprecedented rate. In a way it is quite good to hear that the networking message is being taken up with such enthusiasm. I could attend networking meetings morning, noon and night for the whole month but would it help me to grow my business?
It is only too easy for networking to become a way of avoiding business issues. The argument runs something along the lines of, “I’m taking positive action by attending networking meetings, by growing my contact base and by refining and developing my message.” It can be very seductive, but it can also be self deluding.
To be successful in networking, you need to have a plan. What is it that networking should be doing for you? It can be as simple as getting to know more business people in your area or business sector but it can also be a powerful business builder if you approach it in the right way.
Know what you want and what you can offer to the other people in the meeting. Be clear about who you are and what you and your business can do. Try to make it something that others can understand and remember. In networking it is you as an individual that others will relate to and your business depends on how you come across in meetings. By knowing what you want, you can pick up on cues in conversation to find the people who need your service and also the people who can advocate your service.
Be prepared to give to the group. When others give their introductions or explain their issues and needs, pay attention to them and, where you can, offer help and advice. Networking is a conversation not a selling pitch. Pay attention to the other people there. After all, if you don’t listen to them, how can you expect them to listen to you?
Understand your reputation and build on it. Your reputation is built on your visibility, your clarity and, most importantly, your generosity towards others. Your actions and your words build an impression of you in the others in the group. By taking a full part in the activities of the group and by being attentive to the needs and issues that others present, your reputation will grow positively. If you are tempted to start selling your goods or services, resist. Networking events are seldom a good place for the harder sell.
Build advocates by advocating others. Networking is a recipriocal activity and if you don’t recommend others, why would they recommend you?
Dismiss no-one. It is tempting to focus on those you think are the quality contacts in the group and ignore the others – but don’t. The defect in the oft-deployed quality argument is that you can never know who they know or when you can help them.
A word of caution - networking can take time to pay off. One major project of mine in 2008 began with someone I met in networking meetings in 2004 and had lost touch with. My Facebook profile prompted my client to contact me and the project developed from there. Not only did it take four years to happen, it also came through a network that isn’t my primary business focus.
Networking is not a stand-alone activity. It must be part of a wider marketing mix. From networking contacts, you can schedule meetings to understand each others’ businesses better and, from some of those, longer term business relationships may build. Your networking group may never be your customers – but their contacts may be.
Networking is not selling but it can and does lead to sales.
It is only too easy for networking to become a way of avoiding business issues. The argument runs something along the lines of, “I’m taking positive action by attending networking meetings, by growing my contact base and by refining and developing my message.” It can be very seductive, but it can also be self deluding.
To be successful in networking, you need to have a plan. What is it that networking should be doing for you? It can be as simple as getting to know more business people in your area or business sector but it can also be a powerful business builder if you approach it in the right way.
Know what you want and what you can offer to the other people in the meeting. Be clear about who you are and what you and your business can do. Try to make it something that others can understand and remember. In networking it is you as an individual that others will relate to and your business depends on how you come across in meetings. By knowing what you want, you can pick up on cues in conversation to find the people who need your service and also the people who can advocate your service.
Be prepared to give to the group. When others give their introductions or explain their issues and needs, pay attention to them and, where you can, offer help and advice. Networking is a conversation not a selling pitch. Pay attention to the other people there. After all, if you don’t listen to them, how can you expect them to listen to you?
Understand your reputation and build on it. Your reputation is built on your visibility, your clarity and, most importantly, your generosity towards others. Your actions and your words build an impression of you in the others in the group. By taking a full part in the activities of the group and by being attentive to the needs and issues that others present, your reputation will grow positively. If you are tempted to start selling your goods or services, resist. Networking events are seldom a good place for the harder sell.
Build advocates by advocating others. Networking is a recipriocal activity and if you don’t recommend others, why would they recommend you?
Dismiss no-one. It is tempting to focus on those you think are the quality contacts in the group and ignore the others – but don’t. The defect in the oft-deployed quality argument is that you can never know who they know or when you can help them.
A word of caution - networking can take time to pay off. One major project of mine in 2008 began with someone I met in networking meetings in 2004 and had lost touch with. My Facebook profile prompted my client to contact me and the project developed from there. Not only did it take four years to happen, it also came through a network that isn’t my primary business focus.
Networking is not a stand-alone activity. It must be part of a wider marketing mix. From networking contacts, you can schedule meetings to understand each others’ businesses better and, from some of those, longer term business relationships may build. Your networking group may never be your customers – but their contacts may be.
Networking is not selling but it can and does lead to sales.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Networking and Training Events - create them and find them
I recently took on the role of Regional Leader for Business Scene in Devon and Cornwall. My objectives are to capture all events that are happening in Devon and Cornwall and to establish our site as the 'go to' place for finding events in the two counties and beyond.
To that end, I am happy to add your event to the site and even happier to give you the ability to do so. Business Membership of Business Scene costs just £60 plus VAT per year and allows you to add events, articles, press releases and classified ads. I can give you a free starter period on the site for no cost (just email me at andy.coote@business-scene.com for the code). Events appear on other sites - including the Microsoft Small Business Centre and the Telegraph Business Club - and you can add them to your site by following this link to get the html code.
Events can be added to link to your own site or we will record attendees for you and notify you as they register. To register requires a Personal Membership which is free. We can also process payments to your paypal account.
Come and take a look at the Business Scene site.
To that end, I am happy to add your event to the site and even happier to give you the ability to do so. Business Membership of Business Scene costs just £60 plus VAT per year and allows you to add events, articles, press releases and classified ads. I can give you a free starter period on the site for no cost (just email me at andy.coote@business-scene.com for the code). Events appear on other sites - including the Microsoft Small Business Centre and the Telegraph Business Club - and you can add them to your site by following this link to get the html code.
Events can be added to link to your own site or we will record attendees for you and notify you as they register. To register requires a Personal Membership which is free. We can also process payments to your paypal account.
Come and take a look at the Business Scene site.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Ecademy Cornwall - October Meeting
Lunchtime Networking Ecademy Cornwall October 2008 Wednesday, 8 October - 11:30am to 2:00pm at the Victoria Inn, Roche, Cornwall
Time to get the networking glad rags on and come to Ecademy Cornwall.
We have changed our date - at least for this month - to the first Wednesday which is the 8th and we will be in a new room at the same venue. Instread of the Conservatory we will be in the upstairs meeting room at the Victoria Inn.
The format bit
Tea and coffee on arrival from 11.30am is followed by informal networking.
Food will be served at about 12.30 when we will sit down and give everyone a chance to tell us who they are, what they do and what they need (contacts, resources or help) to succeed in their business in what remains of 2008.
So far, 2008 is proving quite good for the businesses we talk to, but it is clear that there is a slowdown in the UK and it may begin to affect businesses here in Cornwall.
Networking can help when times get tough - and the time for networking is now.
This meeting is also open to non-members. Please invite along your business friends and colleagues. Just so we can get an idea of numbers beforehand, please ask them to register their attendance here: http://www.business-scene.com/event_detail.php?e=5864
** Please note that for this meeting there is a £5.00 meeting fee towards costs and room hire. **
Ecademy networking works! Come and try it. We are a friendly group who want to meet you and understand where you fit in the business life of Devon and Cornwall (or indeed beyond) and to help you where we can.
Our sponsors for this meeting will be Bizwords.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Andy Coote on 01326 373057.
WHEN?
08/10/2008 (11:30 - 14:00)
WHERE?
The Victoria Inn, Victoria, Roche, Bodmin, Cornwall
Click here for a Google Maps link to the Event Location
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This event costs £5.00* for Full Business Members, Personal Members and Non Members
Click for your Free Business-Scene membership
Time to get the networking glad rags on and come to Ecademy Cornwall.
We have changed our date - at least for this month - to the first Wednesday which is the 8th and we will be in a new room at the same venue. Instread of the Conservatory we will be in the upstairs meeting room at the Victoria Inn.
The format bit
Tea and coffee on arrival from 11.30am is followed by informal networking.
Food will be served at about 12.30 when we will sit down and give everyone a chance to tell us who they are, what they do and what they need (contacts, resources or help) to succeed in their business in what remains of 2008.
So far, 2008 is proving quite good for the businesses we talk to, but it is clear that there is a slowdown in the UK and it may begin to affect businesses here in Cornwall.
Networking can help when times get tough - and the time for networking is now.
This meeting is also open to non-members. Please invite along your business friends and colleagues. Just so we can get an idea of numbers beforehand, please ask them to register their attendance here: http://www.business-scene.com/event_detail.php?e=5864
** Please note that for this meeting there is a £5.00 meeting fee towards costs and room hire. **
Ecademy networking works! Come and try it. We are a friendly group who want to meet you and understand where you fit in the business life of Devon and Cornwall (or indeed beyond) and to help you where we can.
Our sponsors for this meeting will be Bizwords.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Andy Coote on 01326 373057.
WHEN?
08/10/2008 (11:30 - 14:00)
WHERE?
The Victoria Inn, Victoria, Roche, Bodmin, Cornwall
Click here for a Google Maps link to the Event Location
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
This event costs £5.00* for Full Business Members, Personal Members and Non Members
Click for your Free Business-Scene membership
Business Networking events in your area
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A new voice in the Cornish Blogosphere
Robert Rush of PFA Research and co-leader of Ecademy Cornwall has started a blog in partnership with Cornwall and Devon Media (ThisisCornwall.com). The blog is ostensibly about research - so what have thongs and anger to do with anything?
I look forward to further revelations about the world of research - and its seamy side?
I look forward to further revelations about the world of research - and its seamy side?
Labels: anger, Ecademy Cornwall, Robert Rush, THong
Monday, December 03, 2007
How X Factor shows the value of honest feedback.
I know that X Factor may not be one of Fresh Business Thinking readers’ most favourite shows, but given its immense audience and the coverage it receives in the press, you will probably have seen some of it. If not, then think of Dragon’s Den or the Apprentice, for they demonstrate the point I want to make, though maybe not as powerfully.
Each new season of X Factor begins with the auditions. The team visit a number of places and get to see hundreds of hopeful acts who believe that they have the X Factor – the ability to be the very best in show business - if only someone would see it and give them their big break. The problem – for them – is that they are in most cases simply awful. What raw talent they have appears to be storable in an eggcup with plenty of room to spare. We can see this, the panel can see this but they, the hopeless hopefuls, simply can’t.
When Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne or Simon Cowell tell them how it is, they get angry and emotional but their internal self-belief often appears to be unchanged. The feedback is honest and, often, brutal, too. It is, usually, deserved. How do those contestants reach that point in their lives – some of them quite a long way in – without someone telling them honestly what anyone can hear? Or have they done that and it is simply discounted and denied?
Giving and getting honest feedback is not an easy process. Giving good feedback depends on our objectivity in doing it. We must consider the behaviour and the outputs and feedback on them and not on the individual who is responsible for them. We also fear that if we are ’brutally’ honest with someone that may change the relationship we have with them. That is not a groundless fear, either. When receiving feedback, our ego often gets in the way and we do, in the old cliché, go on to ‘shoot the messenger’. Even when acting as our own critic, we may be too easy on ourselves in some areas and too hard in others.
What does this have to do with leaders? We, too, may have unrealistic beliefs about our own performance. I’ve met leaders who believed that they were comedians and yet were totally unfunny (like David Brent, the ‘chilled out comedian’ in ‘The Office’) and others who indulged in ‘once more unto the breach’ company motivational speeches that were laughable. This mismatch between belief and reality affected their performance and their credibility. They were less effective as a result.
As leaders we need to be realistic about our strengths and our weaknesses. The level of feedback we need to achieve this is unlikely to come from within the business. What we need is a place where we can give and receive feedback as peers with people who understand our problems and can help us know the real us and can help us to work on developing the skills and understanding that will change that reality for the better. We are all imperfect works in progress. Time spent on self-improvement in a safe environment is never wasted.
Andy Coote is a professional writer and publisher and co-author of A Friend in Every City (2006), a book about Social Networking and Business. As a commentator on leadership and networking, Andy writes for a number of Business Leaders. You can reach him at andy at bizwords.co.uk.
This article first appeared at Fresh Business Thinking
Free Delivery at Ecademy Press this week
We are offering free delivery when you buy two or more books at Ecademy Press this week. Offer must end on Sunday night (9th December 2007).
Full details HERE.
Offer includes all of our 30 plus books including the Village folk children's books. More HERE.
Take a look at our books HERE.
Commercial over :-)
A
Full details HERE.
Offer includes all of our 30 plus books including the Village folk children's books. More HERE.
Take a look at our books HERE.
Commercial over :-)
A
Evening Networking Event - Redruth Cornwall - 11th December
If anyone is reading this who might enjoy a networking evening in West Cornwall, please find a notice below that might interest you -
---------------------------------------------------------------
OPEN NETWORKING EVENING EVENT
HOSTED BY REDRUTH BUSINESS LEAGUE
Sponsored by Business Link
Tuesday 11th Dec
7-9pm
Crossroads Lodge, Scorrier, Redruth
FREE!
SPEED NETWORKING
and
PRESENTATION by PETER STACEY of BUSINESS LINK
“How Business Link can help your Business”
Find out about the support available for your business
Come and meet new customers and suppliers
Meet The Business League
To book your place:
Contact Kevin Oates on kevinoates@thebusinessleague.co.uk
01209 719223 /07968 639 592
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
OPEN NETWORKING EVENING EVENT
HOSTED BY REDRUTH BUSINESS LEAGUE
Sponsored by Business Link
Tuesday 11th Dec
7-9pm
Crossroads Lodge, Scorrier, Redruth
FREE!
SPEED NETWORKING
and
PRESENTATION by PETER STACEY of BUSINESS LINK
“How Business Link can help your Business”
Find out about the support available for your business
Come and meet new customers and suppliers
Meet The Business League
To book your place:
Contact Kevin Oates on kevinoates@thebusinessleague.co.uk
01209 719223 /07968 639 592
---------------------------------------
Monday, November 26, 2007
From Vampires And Zombies To Business Leaders
The next generation of business leaders is waiting, sometimes impatiently, to take their place at the head of business and of government. OK, so James Purnell is currently the youngest cabinet minister at 37 years of age but that won’t be the case forever. The new generation are still in university or taking their places as junior members of business. There are also entrepreneurs who are starting out young, just as Sir Richard Branson did, and beginning to have their impact on business.
Maybe all new generations of business people have been different. My generation came out of the sixties with more informal views on life and on business, but we still conformed with suit and tie when it was needed. We’ve embraced the web and email (or at least tolerated it) and we are getting involved with newer technologies, so can this new wave be so different?
The answer to that is probably. They are far more informal in their dress and in their attitudes to authority, more immediate in the way they act and they are much more open in sharing the intimate details of their thoughts and lives.
What’s more, the technology is arriving that supports those changes in attitude and approach. Where we have, in the most part, held on to our face to face meetings, this generation will be much more comfortable building networks and transacting business online.
So what are their technologies of choice? They use instant messaging and text messaging in preference to email. Their familiarity with computer games also makes them comfortable with technology and they learn quickly as technologies change.
Social networks such as Bebo (during earlier years), MySpace and Facebook have been available to them for a few years now and they have mastered these ways of brand building – personal branding is the essence of networking - until it is second nature to them. They share their lives using the Social Networks and blogs. The technology may, in the view of my generation, leave them open to abuse by sharing too much personal information but they don’t see it that way.
Why Vampires and Zombies? Applications that can be quickly added to Facebook allow anyone to put a Vampire or Zombie on to their profile – the place where their musical, literate, filmic and life preferences can also be presented – and use it to ‘turn’ their friends into Vampires or Zombies and to fight with them to earn points. This may epitomise an approach that life (and business) is a game – or it could disguise a killer instinct. The approach of Facebook is to allow anyone to add applications to their platform (they call it a Social Utility) and offer Facebook users a choice. Most applications are free but with advertising, merchandise or other revenue earning options also available. Facebook earns money by creating and signposting web traffic to providers of paid services and through advertising.
‘Older’ business people are also involved on Facebook and are building their own networks there. I’m there myself. However, I doubt that it is the same experience for me as it is for the younger, much more actively engaged, users. The technology, of course, is not new, just easier to use, quicker and more ubiquitous than before and that makes the difference in my view.
As this Facebook generation develops careers or businesses, will they change and begin to conform to the way things are done? It looks likely that their approach to meetings will be different, with far less travelling needed to be face to face, especially as webcams get better and networks faster. Decisions may be more collegiate with the use of polls to gain an understanding of people’s views both within and outside the business. Style and communication will be more informal. The rise of Second Life and other silicon based parallel universes is also likely to change things. Your avatar (an online ‘physical’ representation of you) may attend meetings in cyberspace for you, giving the impression of being together whilst the participants are far apart, sitting at computers.
Does any of this matter? Here on Fresh Business Thinking in the past week, Clare West reported a Jobcentre plus survey that shows that older workers learn from their younger counterparts. Business leaders will also have to learn and adapt to these new attitudes and approaches. We often claim that business should be fun but are we prepared for the logical extension of that – the business version of Vampires and Zombies?
Of course, we can stay as we are and wait for them to adapt to us, to don the suit and tie and conform. I have a small problem with that. Just as Canute failed to hold back the tide, so we may also fail if we try to resist.
Perhaps we need to adapt to them? See you on Facebook for New Business Leadership 101?
Andy Coote is a professional writer and publisher and co-author of A Friend in Every City (2006), a book about Social Networking and Business. As a commentator on leadership and networking, Andy writes for a number of Business Leaders. You can reach him at andy@bizwords.co.uk and, of course, on Facebook at http://profile.to/andycoote/.
Article first appeared in October 2007 in the Virtual CEO Newsletter at Fresh Business Thinking.
