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.