Networking for Professionals - Top 5 List for Improving Results

CPA's, lawyers, engineers use networking to meet potential clients (as do business owners, entrepreneurs, and so many others!).

When professionals network to find clients, here are 5 best practices that lead to better results.

1. Go where clients gather.  Not all network events are equal.  The managing director of an accounting firm told me yesterday that many Chamber of Commerce events are "mostly salespeople talking to other salespeople." If you're looking for salespeople, great!  If you're looking for business owners and decision-makers, you're in the wrong place.
   
   
2. Know why you're there. You can set goals and objectives for the outcome you want from the event, such as "meet at least 5 interesting people" and "arrange follow-ups with at least 3 people."  You're not there for the chicken wings, or to talk to the people you already know, or to add volume to your business card collection.
   
   
3. Arrive early.  This lets you get used to being in a crowd while it's still small. If you go to the name tag table, you can also see who's coming that you might especially want to meet. You may even take the role of greeter and connector.
   
   
4.  Focus on first impressions.  Pay attention to your own and others' body language, handshake, appearance, expressions, and first words.  You get (and give!) more information from the first few seconds of a relationship than you realize. 
   
   
5. Listen.  The best first impression you can make is being a great listener.  And the more you listen, the more you learn, the better you'll know the people you're meeting. Conversely, the more you talk...

These are 5 of the best of best practices for improving results at networking events.  There are so many more available at the micro-seminar on networking next Wednesday. To learn more, click Networking Micro-Seminar

Re-thinking Sales - for Professional Services like CPAs, Attorneys, Engineers

Last blog started to reframe selling for those who tell themselves "I'm a CPA - I never wanted to be IN sales!" I've heard the same from attorneys and engineers.  Problems start with how we define what "being in sales" means.

One way we define a role is with examples - for instance, is a salesperson someone like the hilariously slick Herb Tarlek on TV's  "WKRP in Cincinnati" or Al Pacino's con-man Ricky Roma in the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross?"  Do we define what a salesperson is by stereotypes selling used cars or timeshare properties?

No wonder those who studied accounting / law / science to be professionals in their field may recoil when expected to also sell!  It's not who they are, not what they trained to become, not what they want to be!

That deep resistance, based on their definition and expectations, leads to an attitude/performance "doom loop."  They don't want to do it, they do it badly, they experience failure, and they hate and resist doing it more.

To break out of the "doom loop" starts with redefining what selling IS.

Sales is meeting people to find out what they want and need.  If they want and need what your firm offers, you can help them make a good decision to meet their needs.  That begins a relationship that lets you use your professional expertise to help them succeed.

If that's what professional sales is about, Herb Tarlek or Ricky Roma don't fit there.  There's no need for "slick" or deception, no "con," no manipulation. 

The people you meet aren't suckers, or victims, or prey - they're potential clients, IF they need what you offer. When you meet people who don't need what you offer, that's OK, and there is absolutely no need to persuade them that they do.

The challenges of professional selling are finding people who may need your services, meeting them, gaining rapport, discovering their wants and needs, offering to meet their needs, and coming to agreement.

Without any compromise to integrity, professionalism, role, or self-image, professionals can improve their comfort and results at every step.

And the first few steps happen through networking - which is the next blog.

Professional Sales as Habit - How Well Does It Fit?

Had an interesting conversation with two principals of an accounting firm this morning, about embedding a business development (i.e., sales) mindset with those who never wanted to sell.  Not easy to do - unless you change the frame.

There are many ways to think about selling, and some are much more productive and congruent with a professional self-image than others.

If the frame in which you think about selling is to focus on the numbers you need to post, it creates desperation and leads to behaviors that won't work and don't fit.

If your frame is that you have to hunt prospects, pitch them, overcome their objections and close them to win the deal, it requires an aggressiveness that doesn't come naturally or comfortably to professionals who didn't plan to be salespeople.

But if the frame is professional sales - that you provide a useful expert service that really helps current clients, and as you meet people you want to discover whether they may have a need for this useful service - it's a better fit. Your conversations are about discovery, not manipulation; you're not trying to convince anyone, but just understand whether there may be a need.

Because you're not "selling" anything, unless you make a connection and discover a need.  At each step of the sales process, you only need to get permission to move along to the next step. And if a relationship happens and a need becomes apparent, you're only inviting the prospective client to act in their own best interest by getting your services.

This approach feels very different for professionals who become responsible for business development.

Why?  Because it's honest.  There's no manipulation, no "games," no deception. Metaphors of war and win/lose just don't fit, and are not necessary.

It's a professional approach to sales, with the highest integrity.

Making (fewer) Bad Decisions

Today I'm on the Peter McClellan Radio show (AM1570) at 4 PM, talking about "Making Bad Decisions" - and of course, the subtext is "how can we make better decisions" and "how can we avoid the bad ones"

I based my comments on a couple of books I re-read for this, Robert Cialdini's "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" and Dan Ariely's "Predictably Irrational."  I've included my mind-map notes on both books on my website, events page.

The one thing I really wanted to say that we didn't cover was about the critical importance of "reflection in action" in improving decisions.  That's deliberately revisiting how you reached the decision, honestly searching for what part was logic, what was "gut" or instinct, what information you had and what you lacked, what signals of external influence were present, and so on.

Many people think we make most of our decisions rationally.  Not so much.  There's a rational component, and some decisions are best made mostly rationally.  But we have a lot more brains than logic, and the unconscious, intuitive "hunches" and emotions are often bringing us important information that we haven't worked up to conscious awareness.

When we revisit our decisions to analyze them, we can better understand how we really made them.

Most people think of analyzing their failures, and of course we should.

But most don't think to analyze their successes.  And which do you want more of?

Extraordinary Resource on Strategy

One online subscription just yielded an extraordinary free resource that anyone even a little interested in strategy should download now, while it's free.

Strategy + Business (http://www.strategy-business.com) is an e-zine put out by Booz & Company. I've been reading it for years, and find it's usually very insightful. 

But today's issue offers a free download of the latest book by Harvard Business Review.  It's a series of articles (with "quick-read" summaries for those of us with tiny attention spans) that define some foundational ideas on strategy.  They call it their "Must-Read" list, and I agree!

The articles in this 143-page compendium include Porter's "What is Strategy" and "Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy," Collins & Porras' "Building Your Company's Vision," Kim & Malborgne's "Blue Ocean Strategy," Mankins & Steele's "Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance," and several more.

Thanks to Booz & Company for subsidizing the free download of the whole book - well worth downloading before the offer expires June 15, when Harvard Business School will likely start to sell it.

Networking as Marketing Strategy - It's All Attitude

This morning's micro-seminar "Networking for Increased Sales" reinforced some key points about the "why" and "how" of networking, and how the fundamental attitude drives everything else.

The why?  Honestly, often to avoid cold-calling. Starting relationships at networking events is a lot more comfortable, and effective (when done well). One source has 60% of new business contacts come through networking, and referrals from networking are 80% more effective than cold calls.  Choosing between attending 3 networking events to get 6 quality referrals and calling 600 strangers?  Not a hard choice!

The how?  Remember your purpose in networking is not to close deals, nor give out business cards, nor "pitch" to anyone who'll listen.  Your purpose is to meet new people, learn who they are, and (when appropriate) start enough of a relationship to earn a follow-up meeting.

The attitude that's important in networking is to be real.  Be curious, be genuinely interested in what the people you meet say and do, to learn all you can about them.  Listening skills are much more important than presentation skills!  A willingness to share your network, to give what you can without tallying the score, to make introductions even at the event - these eventually start to build relationships that matter.

Networking as Marketing Strategy - Efficient?

Doing a micro-seminar this Thursday on "Networking for Increased Sales" spurs reflection on Return On Effort (ROE)  for the many events I've attended, and where there are familiar faces and oh-so-familiar situations.

A colleague in the RAC network in PA told me that she now gets so many invitations to events (Business Networks Internationa; (BNI), Chambers of Commerce, BNI-emulators, Firestorm groups, Meet-Up groups, etc.) that if she could accept them all, it would be a 60-hour per week job. She finds that job doesn't pay well...  Unless she improves the odds of success.

Can going to networking events be part of an effective, efficient marketing strategy?

Well, it depends.

If you go to everything you're invited to, it can be a "black hole" of time and resources. ROE for "shotgun" approach?  Very low.

If you know who's in your target market, and know where they gather, and get invited?  Better ROE.

If you know who you're looking to meet as a prospective client or a referral source, and find events where several people like that are present?  Positive ROE.

And when you get to the event, and that moment of truth happens, when you get that one chance to make a first impression, some people launch their sales pitch.  ROE for pitching? Very, very low.  Can even do harm.

If you press to qualify, trying to smoke out if they're a decision-maker, have a need, and have money?  Very low ROE - can do reputation harm and make people avoid you.  Who wants their arm twisted by someone they just met?

If you are genuinely interested in the people you meet, curious about how their world works and where they find joy in it?  Positive ROE.

Networking, randomly?  Low ROE.

Networking, purposefully, with the right goals and attitudes?  Better ROE.

More in the coming days.

Selling Strategy

Last post mentioned that if sales isn't working, the rest of strategy doesn't matter. Since writing that, in conversations with dozens of entrepreneurs and small businesses, I'm hearing universal agreement - and concern.

A refinancer said whatever deal she puts together today might not be possible in a month. A mortgage broker said he expects his business to shift dramatically this year when interest rates start to rise. A fellow consultant said most are stuck in a "wait and see" mode, unwilling to commit. A banker said conditions for making loans are tighter than ever before, and he has to tell his prospects "No" most of the time.


Of course it's all true, and it misses an important point: No matter what happens with interest rates, with taxes, with credit, with unemployment, with rapidly changing rules and conditions, with the random fluctuations of Wall Street, an effective sales strategy has to do just three things:

1. Find willing & able customers
2. Offer help with what they experience as a problem/opportunity
3. Make buying easy and satisfying.

When a business offers a good solution to a priority problem, or the means to sieze a perceived opportunity, the sales strategy becomes getting it "out there" in front of those with that problem/opportunity and make buying a reasonable and easy choice.

How?  Depends on the customer, and how they want to buy.  The customer is in control; all a business can do is facilitate their awareness, confirm their wants & needs, anticipate and answer their questions, inform them of their choices in ways that help them decide -- however they decide.

And once a willing customer decides to buy, the rest of the strategy becomes important.

More on that next time.

Strategy - Learning As You Go

The "Learning School" holds that organizational learning is how to keep strategy flexible and adaptive to rapidly changing environments.

"Walking the talk," I'm applying some practices of organizational learning to the sales microseminar series strarting on 3/11 (see www.effectivelearningforgrowth.com for details). Reflecting on what's been done before, challenging my assumptions about why and how, deliberately doing some things differently and watching for effect, cycling back through the reflective process.

(I'm noticing that organizational learning in an organization of one is, well, different, yet the same because it's quite practical.  At least, the discussions are shorter.)

Microseminars are one component of my marketing strategy, which is in turn one component of my own overall business strategy for Effective Learning for Growth.

The marketing strategy - how one attracts clients - may be the most essential part of any overall strategy, since no clients means no business. Even if every other part of the whole strategy works beautifully, if this part doesn't, it's "game over."

Challenging the why - these are primarily to help other entrepreneurs, who often struggle from not knowing how to sell. But they're also to showcase the content of sales training for potential corporate clients and individual coaching clients.  The why stands, but changes the how because the intended results from last year's sessions were less than anticipated.

Changing the how - Have marketed these through social media, primarily using Linked-In Chamber of Commerce and other groups.  This time, continuing what worked, but adding two elements: cold-calling businesses in Chambers, and (thanks to a great idea from Tom Majewsky) started a Meet-Up group, as well. Also adding in social media more actively.

Real-time strategy adjustment through reflection-in-action - how might it translate for larger organizations?

Learning for Flexible Strategy

Mintzberg describes a "Learning School" of strategy that offers some neat possibilities for how to make strategy flexible.

The "Learning School" incorporates various elements from the last 20+ years to offer a radical approach to that flexibility problem:  What if an organization's strategy included organizational learning? What if organizational learning actually drove strategic change?

That is, what if the organization focused time and attention on

• questioning strategic assumptions,
• scanning the environment for emerging threats and opportunities, 
• engaging in dialog about the complexities and confusion in the environment, 
• learning in an emergent way, and 
• coming together about new directions based on a new shared understanding?

Emergent learning?  Maybe the right way to deal with the environmental emergent-cies we all see smashing over-considered strategies?

And, with the whole organizational learning opus on the table, what if an organization were smart and bold enough to combine a few things, as a test?  Specifically:

Action Learning
+
Executive small group
(chartered to find and recommend strategic modifications)
+
New technologies for virtual group work
=== === ===
An agile, adaptive, approach to strategy revision

Could be a game-changer...

How Flexible Is Your Strategic Plan?

Strategic plans are based on analyzing the environment and prescribing a direction, a series of activities to create the future the organization wants.

Strategic plans limit choices of action to that path that the planner foresaw when the plan was made. Some are more flexible than others. If they’re not flexible, they’re doomed to be SPOTS (Strategic Plan On The Shelf).

How flexible is yours? These 3 questions will tell you.

1. What metrics tell you if you’re heading for the results you want?
2. What assumptions are the foundation of your plan – and how do you know if they’re still true?
3. What contingencies are built into the plan?

Metrics tell you whether your plan’s working. The best ones provide a “dashboard” of key indicators that are sensitive and future-focused.

Assumptions list out the environmental factors – stable or changing in some predicted direction – that are necessary for the plan to keep making sense. Thinking them through, writing them down, and checking them periodically keeps the foundation of the plan rooted in reality.

Contingencies are a series of “what if” scenarios about the assumptions changing or the metrics going badly. They include at least the early steps of diagnosis and a direction for recovery.

A problem you anticipate can be halfway solved – which is what flexibility in strategy provides.

"Strategy is dead" RIP, and long live AGILE strategy!

Last week, the Wall St. Journal featured an article saying “Strategic Plans Lose Favor” with larger companies (read).

The article reports that companies like Home Depot, Spartan Motors, and (surprisingly!) Accenture think “Strategy, as we knew it, is dead.”

I say “Rest in peace!” -- for the sort of strategic planning that Accenture has specialized in, and that most larger companies have practiced.

Strategic planning can be, and has been, a massively analytical undertaking. Large consulting firms, like Accenture, can spend months of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing an exquisitely detailed strategic plan based on massive analysis. Sometimes they’ll deliver it in nice leather binders so it looks great on the executives’ bookshelves.

In an economy with lots of surprises, such strategic plans can be obsolete before they’re printed.

One manufacturing company spent months developing a plan to achieve ambitious growth over a 3-year period. Within the first 2 quarters, sales dried up and they went into survival mode. As for the strategic plan? “Well, we haven’t looked at it in quite a while.”

So does that mean that strategic planning is dead, killed by the accelerating pace of change?

By no means! But the analytical behemoths may go extinct, while more agile approaches will flourish.

To be useful in turbulent and difficult times, strategic plans need to be flexible and adaptive, open to rapid learning from the environment.

If a strategic plan is not agile, it’s dead, worthless, money very poorly spent for “SPOTS” (Strategic Plan On The Shelf).

So how can a strategic plan be agile? See my next blog.