How to Make Networking Events Pay Off
Established professionals and those who are new in business often have a difference of opinion about going to networking events. Many old-timers in business say that live, in-person networking meetings are one of their most important sources of prospective clients, while the newcomers frequently claim to not see much return from attending these events. It’s the professionals’ length of time in business that seems to influence their view, not their age in years. So, what’s going on here?
Laying Your Marketing Foundation
Some marketing elements are foundational to your business. They function as the building blocks on which everything else is constructed. If you were building a house, this would be like pouring the concrete to make a solid foundation which you build everything else on top of.
These elements are things like having business cards, a good answer for what you do for a living, a website, a free giveaway, or a go-to speech. As a business owner, you’ll want to figure out what’s foundational for your business, and how to get those things done.
Figuring Out What’s Foundational to Your Marketing
What foundational items you choose is completely dependent on the type of business you have. In my case, most of the people I work with have a service based business, which lends itself to foundational items such as:
Making Time for Marketing and Selling
“I don’t have time to market my business.” It’s a common complaint from self-employed professionals. When you are the only one who can serve your clients, manage the business, keep up in your field, and perform all the sales and marketing functions, time becomes the most precious commodity you have. How can you find time for marketing with so many other important priorities?
You have many time management techniques at your disposal, of course. You can defer some tasks or delegate them to an assistant, chunk down big projects into smaller steps, and set aside blocks of time on your calendar for making calls, writing emails, or updating your social media channels. But perhaps you have already tried all those approaches and discovered that time is still scarce.
Is Procrastination Holding Back Your Marketing?
When you look at your marketing to-do list, do many of the items on it look all too familiar? Have entries like “call Dolores Sanchez” and “follow up with Wallingford Corp.” been copied from a previous week? Putting off unappealing tasks may be human nature, but for a self-employed professional, procrastination can be deadly.
Delays in contacting a prospect can lose the business to the competition. Failing to get the word out about an upcoming event may forfeit dozens of opportunities. When prospects don’t hear from you for a while, they forget you exist. Wasted marketing time can never be recovered. By the time you realize you might not make your sales goals for the month, quarter, or year, it may already be too late.
Are You Circling Dallas?
I’m not sure where I first heard the term but I fell in love with it immediately: Circling Dallas. Being a Texan I naturally think everything orbits the Lone Star State; however, that’s not what I’m talking about. Circling Dallas refers to that state where you are going somewhere and you just can’t seem to land. You could be going to an event and you just can’t seem to make it out the door. Or you’re going to write an article and you can’t sit down and get typing. Or, you’re going to get around to your marketing any minute now, just as soon as you do the dishes, walk the dog, rearrange your desk, and plant those petunias. Even if you’ve gone to the effort of making a marketing calendar, and choosing your preferred marketing strategies, you find yourself still not taking the necessary steps to get going.
Any Consistent Activity Can Become a Marketing Strategy
“I don’t know how to market,” one of my coaching clients said. “I hate marketing,” declared another. “The marketing thing feels so unnatural to me,” claimed a third.
My response to statements like these from my clients is to reply (gently and compassionately), “I don’t think that’s true. I think you’ve just misunderstood what marketing is, and how it works.”
When You Think You Don’t Know How to Market
You Are the Boss: The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Flashback to 2004: I had my shiny new coaching certificate. I had a grand vision of the future. I had five clients and several years of experience. I had just quit my job. World domination was mine! Except — I had no idea what I had just signed myself up for, and if I had, I’m not sure I would have done it.
The One Can’t Fail, Surefire Marketing Strategy
What’s your one surefire, can’t fail marketing strategy? What did someone tell you is the one thing that always works? When you think of what these strategies might be, I’m guessing things come to mind such as attending networking events or publishing articles, and these certainly can be effective marketing strategies.
If you look at the broader picture of marketing, you can see it with a unique perspective. A perspective that produces consistently great results no matter what marketing strategy you choose. A real-life, win that you can count on no matter what. Curious what it is?
Advertising Doesn’t Equal Marketing
I asked a new client recently what he had been doing to market his professional services. “Everything,” he said. “I’ve been running pay-per-click ads online, I hired someone to write a sales letter and mailed it to a list of local companies, I have a banner ad in my professional association’s directory, I’ve even been posting flyers around town… and I still have almost no business.”
“Ah hah,” I replied, “I think we’ve uncovered your problem. You actually haven’t been marketing your business. What you have been doing is advertising.”
Rejection: It’s Not About You
One of the most persistent barriers to success for self-employed professionals is fear of rejection. Sometimes this fear is quite conscious. You know that you are avoiding marketing and sales because you’re afraid your prospects will say no.
Other times the fear is lurking in the background, making an impact you’re not always aware of. You may find yourself procrastinating about making a phone call or setting up a sales appointment, and blame it on laziness or poor time management. Or you may avoid following up because you “don’t want to bug people.” Or perhaps it feels pushy to ask directly for a sale.
