Networking the Media
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008The media is a business’s absolute best friend. It is THE
source of information distribution to the masses. Even “bad”
press has been known to stimulate business.
Marketing Daily TipsThe media is a business’s absolute best friend. It is THE
source of information distribution to the masses. Even “bad”
press has been known to stimulate business.
Once you have the attention of a business prospect, at some point in the conversation, the prospect will ask you, “So what do you do?”. In most cases, you will only have 60 seconds, to catch the interest of the prospect. Therefore, your response to this questions needs to be specific enough to tell what you do, but interesting enough for the prospect to ask for more information.
Have you ever gone to a networking function and seen THE person who you feel could help you most there, except that person is surrounded by people ALL the time? Have you ever tried to enter into a conversation with that circle of people, only to have gotten the feeling you were intruding? How do you get an audience with a person who is constantly surrounded by “gatekeepers”? This happens often at gatherings that do not have a structured agenda- in other words in places where open networking is promoted. Here’s an effective approach to meeting the person you want to meet.
Whether you go to a Chamber of Commerce event, a PTA meeting, the racquetball court, the local health club, or practically anywhere else, opportunities to network present themselves constantly. But there are fears which present themselves as well. For example, we ask ourselves if we are in a situation where talking business might be considered tacky. Will I be considered a ‘hard sell’ type of salesperson for talking about my business at a social gathering?
We have been talking about choosing groups to participate in that meet your needs and goals as a business professional. Once the decision is made on which groups to belong to, then a certain level of participation is required in order to achieve the individual goals set by the business professional.
Time is a concern for all of us. We only have so much of it to give to our work, and then some to our families, our churches and some to ourselves. In today’s business climate it is essential to spent our time wisely to maximize our productivity and satisfaction with our lives.
Besides a survey, your contact list can be used to generate sales directly. Some of the following ideas must be done one-on-one and others can be done to large quantities of prospects at a time. They all have varying levels of effectiveness. A general rule of thumb is:
In previous articles, we discussed the generation of a contact list. This time, we look at one idea on what to do with that list once you have it.
In a previous installment, we spoke about how to come up with a list of persons you currently know. Although everyone on that list will not necessarily become your client, everyone can lead you to clients. In this section, we will talk about how to get referrals from all of the people on your contact list and what to do once you have those referrals.
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