Dear Reserved Networker,

The trick to selling your services when networking is to first chat about a variety of topics – some business-related some not -- while casually dropping into the conversation what you do and how you help people. Listen carefully for what others reveal about their (or a friend, family member or someone else's) particular needs, wants and challenges.

Once you identify a need that your business can address, that's the time to say, "That's interesting because our company helps people to …. Maybe we can help you. Why don't you tell me more about what you want to do."

Asking someone if they are interested in your service before you have uncovered their needs is like a street vendor pushing his armful of fake designer watches to someone who is already wearing a Rolex.

For more information about Don Gabor's books, workshops and executive coaching please visit www.dongabor.com or contact him at 718-768-0824 or don@dongabor.com.

 

Unfortunately, the answer is not "cut and dried". The short answer is that it has to be tested and tracked like any other marketing effort. All marketing tactics have to cascade down from a marketing strategy. A strategy identifies the target market and how they receive information. Then it goes to define the pains and problems they have when purchasing a product or service like yours. Once the pains are defined, then you have to match your offer to them to get them to understand why you are the only choice to do business with.

If print advertising fits the strategy, then we can safely say it is OK to try a few ads. I might suggest starting with the one newspaper you feel will give you the best chance for success and trying a few ads. Then stop and assess. If they provide an acceptable return on marketing investment, try to beat the response by tweaking the messaging and the offer. If you are done tweaking and feel that you can expand to other newspapers, then use the same process. Try a few and assess the results.

The final thought is to compare your return on marketing investment to other forms of marketing. Very often, event marketing, referral marketing, internet marketing and PR beat the pants off of traditional print marketing. Make sure you are testing and tracking all areas of your marketing program.

For more information about Eric Keiles' marketing strategies firm Square2Marketing, please visit www.square2marketing.com or contact him at 215-230-3373 or eric@square2marketing.com.

Great question, but it might me a bit late to ask before you sign off on your partnership! I’ll take “sign off” in the figurative sense it was presumably meant though.

Everything in life has pros and cons, and as you would expect, business partnerships are no exception. If you are going into business and think you can handle it yourself, then of course stay out of a partnership. However, some people have impressive capabilities in some areas while admitting to weaknesses in others. For them, having a partner with complementary qualifications could make for a great partnership and a successful business.

As far as a money partner is concerned, I usually advise people to stay away from that unless considerable start-up capital is needed, or the partner/investor is a serial investor who consistently invests as a silent partner with other companies. The reason being that some people will invest in a good idea, have no clue what the other partner is doing, wait “in the dark” for a return on their investment, and be frustrated when business isn’t doing so well, since the working partner has been running the show without keeping the investor’s hand on the pulse of the business all throughout.

A good idea that I recommend to others in similar scenarios, is having the investing partner be involved at least 3-4 hours a month reviewing reports and going over what is happening in the business. That will give the partner more of a hands-on, involved role in the operations, and give him or her, a holistic view the business.

Good luck with your new venture.

Getting press is worth many times the value of paying for ads and is a powerful marketing tactic if executed effectively. The key point is that an article written about your company is from a third party, and that validation is worth quite a bit in the eyes of the prospect. For example, I could tell you I'm the greatest marketing expert in the world, but if one of my clients told you, it would mean so much more. I would highly recommend adding some level of public relations to any small business' marketing efforts.

As far as replacing your print ads - I have one question: are you tracking the response? If you are, then you know how many prospects reached out to your company and how many of those decided to do business with you. If the ads are producing an acceptable return on marketing investment then keep them. If you are looking to add another marketing tactic in a PR campaign, that has to be evaluated in exactly the same way. But it's independent of the print ads. Now, if the PR firm you want to hire is beyond your current marketing budget, then look at tactics that DO NOT have an acceptable return on marketing investment and cut those!

For more information about Eric Keiles' marketing strategies firm Square2Marketing, please visit www.square2marketing.com or contact him at 215-230-3373 or eric@square2marketing.com.

I have a few suggestions for you.

First, you might want to test other formats. Postcards are cheap, but we've found that they never outperform a letter package. If you tested this, you might send out a smaller quantity of letters at first - and then invest more as you see them work (and they will.)

Second, you are very smart to test lists since that's the most important element of a direct mail campaign - but the second most important part is the offer. That's the extra something that someone gets when they respond, or buy your product. I would suggest testing a few of these - you will see a big difference between them in response.

Finally, you may want to read an article on my website called "Direct Marketing on a Shoestring" in the recent Publications section which has several money-saving tips and techniquess.

For more information about Alan Rosenspan and his direct marketing creative and consulting firm, please visit www.alanrosenspan.com or contact him at 617-559-0999 or toll free at arosenspan@aol.com.

This is very difficult to do, unless you are trained to know what to look for. If you ask your top people why they are successful they may give you answers that are not the real reason for their success. That’s not necessarily because they’re trying to protect their “trade secrets”. Many top salespeople are unconsciously competent. In other words they’re great at what they do, but may not know how they do it. This would be like Michael Jordan. He was one of the all time best basketball players. He would probably make a lousy coach though.

So the question remains, what do you do? The most duplicable thing I know is sales scripting. I would transcribe what the top people are saying and create a master sales presentation and I would have the salespeople with the lowest closing ratios memorize the sales presentation.

Success.

For more information about Eric Lofholm and his Sales Program, please visit www.ericlofholm.com or contact him at 916-435-0416 or toll free at 888-81-SALES.

I have worked with many clients who had the same situation happen. There are a few things that we must understand first.

Number one, most people want to help their family members with business. However, I have seen that a client will work with a family member, because they are new in the business, only to be disappointed in the long run because that family member does not have the same experience or expertise you may have.

Number two, you can not "fight" the family bond. The first reaction of many people in your position is to make statements like, "oh, he is new and doesn't know as much as I do" etc.. You are fighting an uphill battle there.

The best way to approach this very common situation is to acknowledge the desire of your client to help a family member. Also, state that it is important for your client to have the highest level of certainty and perhaps the best way to continue this is to maintain a portion of business with you, while testing out the family member.

The next step is to explain the dangers of working with family, but in a subtle way. The way I handle this is by stating that I never do business with anyone I can't fire. Many families are pulled apart because of this.

I even let them know of my great intention to help my brother, however, it became very challenging when I realized I needed better support from my old supplier and had to go back to them.

Finally, you must be proactive for future situations. Listen to your clients and if you hear any hint that a family member is looking to get into the business, become an advocate and offer help to that family member. Perhaps it will work out where the family member works with you on your existing client.

Keep the Passion!!

For more information about Gary Parks and his Program to Empower, please visit www.garyparks.com or contact him at 516-384-8074 or gparks@garyparks.com.

I don’t know what the product is, but the right generic answer is likely to be some form of samples selling, or selling by doing not selling by telling.

If it’s a tractor, take it out to their farm and let them try it on their land, instead of talking about features in the showroom;

If it’s financial advice, take a look at the client’s portfolio and give advice, rather than talking about other people’s experience;

If it’s gourmet food, literally send free samples;

If it’s a luxury car, let them take it home for a day;

If it’s consulting, give some away for free;

And so forth. The idea behind the suggestion is people buy with their heart and justify it with their brain; yet most salespeople sell to the brain, not the heart, giving everyone “reasons” to buy and answering “objections” with “counters.”

Don’t do that. Instead, let people viscerally grasp what it’s like, on their terms, to experience the product. If you do that, then they can decide if they like it or not. IF they don’t like it, stop and go on to someone else (or ask if they have friends who could use it).

If they are interested, then it’s much easier to supply the rationalizations for them as to the value of the product: the tractor is so much more efficient you’ll have extra time to manage commodities hedging; the financial advice can give you so much more peace of mind and certainty; the gourmet food creates such a better quality of life for the family; the luxury car will impress clients; and so forth. All of those rationalizations go way beyond price.

Clue: if someone has a price problem, that means they have not internalized the benefits. If they have not had that chance, give it to them—on their terms. Give them a sample.

For more information about Charles Green's firm Trusted Advisors Associates, please visit www.trustedadvisor.com or contact him at 973-898-1579 or cgreen@trustedadvisor.com.

You have to find a way to get their attention to WANT to take your call. I am not above sending a fine bottle of wine to a reporter I want to cover a story, flowers to a receptionist, repeated creative mailings to the decision maker.

There is no simple way. The prize is definitely rewarded to the persistent. If you are uncomfortable with it, maybe you have to hire someone with thicker skin. I got a gig from materials the client had received two years prior. Keep prospecting and keep trying.

For more information about Bob Phibbs' consulting company The Retail Doctor, please visit www.retaildoc.com or contact him at 562-260-2266 or bob@retaildoc.com.

Yes, I would suggest the best website you can afford. In 2007, Google published a report saying that 88% of all prospective customers looked at a company's website before they decided to purchase. The website is the keystone to your entire marketing effort. It works tirelessly to tell the story as to why your store is the obvious choice to do business with. Plus, it has the added benefit of being able to catch prospective customers' email addresses.

In the case of the ten-store Pretzel Boy's chain, they gathered as many email addresses as they could through their website. Then, once per month, they email a special to the list (e.g. try our new pretzel pups and receive a free soda). The owner, Tim Dever, was shocked to see how many coupons were actually redeemed!

I would also execute the collection of email addresses in the store.

Pretzel Boy's uses an acrylic drop box in all of their stores with an offer to "win a year's supply of pretzels". It also notes on the entry form, "winners will only be notified by email". Now they are collecting hundreds of emails per week to add to their database.

For more information about Eric Keiles' marketing strategies firm Square2Marketing, please visit www.square2marketing.com or contact him at 215-230-3373 or eric@square2marketing.com.

Networking events can pay off big time -- if you do the right things! Here are six tips to make your networking at business events more profitable and productive.

Think T-A-R-G-E-T:

T = Target your prospects and contacts ahead of time by asking for a guest list. Most likely you can't meet everyone at the event, so it's valuable to know those who are "must meets."

A = Articulate specific networking goals such as identifying industry trends, new products, finding vendors, meeting potential customers and so on.

R = Reach out to contacts and prospects with a short email or telephone call before the event. It will be easier to break the ice if you've had prior contact.

G = Gather information about prospects & industry. The more you know about your market, the better.

E = Extend a helping hand to others at the event. The key to successful networking is helping others make contacts. The philosophy of "giving" will pay off tenfold.

T = Time your conversations at the networking event. Most business events last about two hours so figure about 5-15 minutes per conversation. If you feel there is potential for business or want to talk more, then follow-up soon after the event via telephone, email or a face-to-face meeting.

For more information about Don Gabor's books, workshops and executive coaching please visit www.dongabor.com or contact him at 718-768-0824 or don@dongabor.com.