Zip Ze Lips

A few days ago I was preparing for a sales seminar that I am delivering this week. I rarely teach about sales these days, preferring to focus on word-of-mouth marketing, but this is a favor for my friend John Bauer, Director of the Bluffton Center for Entrepreneurs.

One aspect of the training will focus on the act of information gathering. The same day I worked on this presentation, I also introduced one of my networking contacts to another. I smiled to myself when I realized how the two (networking and selling) are very alike.

You see, back when I was a sales manager, I accompanied my sales staff to their appointments sometimes. We had an acronym that we used to help us to remember to ask the right questions. What I found with new sales people was that they would quickly stop asking questions and start SELLING the second they had gathered a piece of information that meant they could be of benefit to the prospect.

What happened as a result is that many times the prospect shut up entirely and got defensive. All of a sudden, instead of being asked all about their wants and needs, they were having to think quickly to deflect the hard sell.

In networking appointments the same can happen. If two people are being introduced by a third, it is better to let that third person do complete introductions and promotion before even opening your mouth! First of all, if you start to talk to early, you may miss an important piece of information and secondly, the introducer won't get to brag about you as much as possible.

So no matter whether you are selling or networking,

BITE YOUR TONGUE!

The calluses you develop will pay off in the long run!

A Target of Millions and Millions

Yeesh!

With all the hoopla of the Apple iPad roll out, there was one small paragraph that caught my eye. I have copied it below but you can link to the story here.

"The target audience is everyone," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis at Interpret, a market research firm. "Apple does not build products for just the enthusiasts," he said. "It doesn't build for the tens of thousands; it builds for the tens of millions."

Hmmm. I guess if you are Apple your target audience (market) can be everyone. But doesn't that go against the very definition of what a target market is?????

I have been doing a lot of reading about this very subject within the last month. One phrase from my reading has stayed with me. It is, "Specialize or Spend."

I think that says it all. The wider the target, the more you have to spend, both in time and money.

I guess Michael Gartenberg thinks Apple has an unlimited supply of both.

What are your thoughts?

Lingo Spingo

Yesterday, I gave a networking presentation where I used the term, "one-to-one." Knowing that some people might not know what I was referring to, I defined it. (A meeting between two people who are getting to know each other better.)

At the end of the talk, one person in the audience, let's call her Sharon, thanked me for the definition. She shared that she is new to networking and that at a recent event someone had asked her to schedule a one-to-one meeting.

Not being sure what it was for, she called and asked the person if they were interested in what she was selling. This person answered, "No," but didn't explain any further what the intentions of the meeting were.

Confusion.

Sharon had no idea of the reason for the meeting.

So two things were going on here.

1) Lingo was used and it was assumed that everyone knew what the lingo meant.

2) The person scheduling the appointment didn't articulate the reason for the appointment. ("Let's meet to find out how we might be able to help each other."

What this did for Sharon to make her even more afraid of networking. She felt like she didn't know the ropes, that she was missing the directions to the game. And that made her feel less than confident.

Let's play nice. Remember that lingo is lingo and that we need to define it for others or NOT USE IT. And we need to say out loud, "This is the reason we should meet."

Simple.

Giving Back

I am reading (or skimming, really) Debbie Tenzer's book, Do One Nice Thing. If you're looking for a way to give of yourself, I highly recommend this book or her website.

One suggestion she makes in the book is to teach children empathy by having them help with the elderly in the neighborhood.

Whoosh!

It took me right back to my early years in Lyndonville, NY. I had a very simple upbringing in the one mile square village. Part of that was the small town atmosphere, but equally was the way my parents infused the very concept about children helping.

Next door to us, Mrs. Smith lived in a small, rather ramshackle house. She was in her 80's and lived on only her Social Security check. She also had no phone. (Can you even imagine it?????)

My parents become her lifeline. Every Sunday they fixed a plate of Sunday dinner to take to her. (She for some reason didn't want to come to our house to eat.) They also made sure her lawn was mowed and went to the post office to get her mail. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessin' that they probably went to the grocery store too.

My dad loved to garden (the acorn has not fallen far from the tree!) and Mrs. Smith allowed him to plow her property behind her big old barn as an addition to his garden. Of course, during the growing season, she received all kinds of fresh fruit and veggies.

Mom encouraged me to spend time visiting Mrs. Smith and I can remember sitting on her from porch reading and talking about Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales. Mrs. Smith related that she had never read them because her mother wouldn't allow it.

In networking we constantly talk about mutually beneficial relationships. My parents demonstrated that very early in my life. Everyone gained including me. I learned how important all people were in my life.

Thanks, Mom, Dad and Mrs. Smith!

Resources

If you are thinking of starting a new business, an old book might be the key for you.

I picked up Target Marketing, by Linda Pinson and Jerry Jinnell at the library.

Even though it was written in 1993, it should be required reading for someone thinking of starting a business. It is a step-by-step process from the germ of an idea to actual business in place.

Along the way, there are easy forms to use to help identify target market, location analysis, competition evaluation, financial and advertising worksheets. And more! Additionally there are a multitude of resources named at the end of each chapter.

This might be a book that deserves to be purchased. You can get it used here for just one penny, but it is worth a whole heck of a lot more.

Getting to Second Base

In a couple weeks I will be speaking at the Pittsburgh International Networking Day celebration. My topic is Turning Networking Dating into Networking Dollars. During this talk I will share the five bases of networking and how to gain a better ROI on networking time.

I need to take my own advice!

Last week I met with a new contact. This young woman said that she wanted to meet with me. I did not ask why -- stupid me.

Let's just put it this way. She started at the beginning of time focusing on her part in it and brought me along on her ride of history. Every detail. Stuff I really didn't want to know.

I kept trying to get a focus on the conversation to no avail. At one point I was speechless. I just didn't know what to ask next. I think my brain may have been lulled to sleep.

Finally, I asked something that I never ask on a networking appointment. I asked her if she wanted to buy from me. I know that is somewhat rude(when networking as opposed to selling), but I just didn't know what to do next and in my mind I figured it would flush out some point for the conversation.

Of course as I suspected, the answer was no. She explained that she was an expert networker and didn't need a course about networking. (I tried not to smirk.)

So don't do as I did. Don't go into a networking appointment blind. Or if you do, your energy may be sucked right out of you and you will have nothing to show for the time spent. And please don't get me wrong. It is sometimes fun to just meet people -- to find out about them -- as long as it is a conversation not a monologue.

Stones and Tea

I am listening to the new book Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson, who also is the author of the wildly successful, Three Cups of Tea.

In the original book, Mortenson relates that he makes a commitment to build schools in the mountains of Pakistan because the members of a village saved his life as he was near death coming back from a mountain climb. He begins the project as a typical American, wanting to get things done and done quickly. A village elder instructs him to take a slower approach, explaining that Greg needs to have three cups of tea with folks as he does business. "With the first you are a stranger, the second you are a friend and the third you are family and we will do anything, including put our life on the line for family."

I am only at the beginning of the second book, but already the author has caught my ear! He explains that he builds schools in the outer reaches of civilization because no one else will go to the ends of the earth to do so. And for one village, it took him not three cups of tea, but 8 years of three cups of tea, winning the favor of the village leader before he was given the go-ahead.

That story made me think about how we "civilized folk" are so willing to quit after just a short time. I hear all the time from networkers that "this person or that person didn't help me (in the time I had devoted to this relationship) so I am moving on."

Now, I am the first to say that some relationships need to be left behind. But I think far too many of us fail to realize that we have to put TIME in for longer than we think necessary before we gain a return on that investment.

I think we can take so much from Greg Mortenson and what he has learned about building schools AND relationships.