Converting Networking and Connecting into Dollars

By Lori Richardson, Northwest Bureau Chief         Lori's Bio        Email article to a friend

Because I have a background in corporate selling as well as networking and connecting, I am always on the lookout for examples of individuals who bring focus and purpose to their connecting. Many people are good at getting out there and meeting others, yet they do not know how to convert that to support their business goals. Most of us have heard about the "givers gain" premise of helping others and often don't know the next steps beyond helping others get what they want. How about getting new business?

Ann Amati is a business consultant in the Seattle area. She once explained to me about how she made her marketing more tangible, predictable, and yes, enjoyable.  Here's her story, in her words:

By Ann Amati
Principal and Founder, Deliberate Strategies Consulting

Early in my 13 years of self-employment as a consultant I fantasized about finding a marketing machine: a predictable set of steps I could take that would generate a viable lead. I wanted the equivalent of putting a nickel in a slot, turning the crank, and having an opportunity pop out the back end.

A few months ago I sat down to map out what my marketing machine would look like in reality. Problem: my sales involve a conceptual sale to a narrowly defined niche that isn't listed by my qualifying criteria in directories or business lists. In 30 minutes I realized that, for my kind of consulting practice, I couldn't expect to take a simple action at my convenience and reliably find an opportunity. In that same 30 minutes I'd documented where all my projects had come from. They broke down into three categories: referrals from friends, referrals from colleagues I'd met through networking, and the lone piece of business that found me on the Internet.

In other words, my business was highly dependent on networking. I already knew this, but networking is work. My Mythical Marketing Machine was supposed to be easy. It looked like my reality-based marketing machine was going to involve networking.

If networking was the only thing that ever led to my meeting "people who could sign big checks," maybe what I needed to do was quantify my networking. (Even the client that found me on the Internet could be tied to networking: the site he'd found was a consultant's registry that I'd learned of at a conference sponsored by a professional organization whose meetings I regularly attended.) Rather than hope I could get instant results from putting one nickel in a Mythical Marketing Machine when I was hungry, I needed to treat my marketing machine like a slot machine and plan on putting nickels in constantly. Most of the time I'd get all lemons. Occasionally I'd get all cherries. The benefits were it took the pressure off each individual action and it kept me in marketing mode.

Thus was born my 20 Nickels Plan. I set of budget of $200 a month for registration fees and lunch tabs, picked the arbitrary goal of spending 20 marketing nickels per week, and created a scoring system.

* Sending a networking or relationship-building e-mail: 1 nickel.

* A phone, face-to-face meeting or group meeting with colleagues: 2 nickels.

* A meeting with or a call to a prospect or proven referral partner: 4 nickels.

* Submitting a proposal or working on a project: 15 nickels.

* Signing a letter of agreement is the equivalent of bringing up all cherries. I made that worth 20 nickels.

In other words, when a prospect became a client, I'd allow myself to stop marketing for a week and focus on the project. However, because I'm no different from a lot of consultants who stop marketing while busy on a project, I let "working on a project" be worth only 15 nickels. I would make it a priority to send five networking e-mails a week while on a project.

I keep track on a simple 20-lined chart. Every week has its own column. I got off to a slow start struggling to hit my goal each week at first, but I started looking in the business journal for events to attend, and the process got easier. Attending an event is just two nickels, but I met people I followed up with. Each of those follow-up meetings or calls was two nickels. It didn't take long to regularly "spend" 20 marketing nickels each week.

The beauty of taking the goals seriously was, I'd find myself mid week with a lot more nickels to spend before the week was over. That motivated me to contact people I wouldn't have contacted or I'd look for events to attend that normally didn't appeal to me. It stretched my comfort zone.

It also paid off: I'd meet the occasional person who fully understood what I do (its uniqueness can be hard to appreciate) who could also make an appropriate referral. Within four months I had four solid leads. In my business that can be nearly a year's worth of work if spread out evenly throughout the year. I went from wondering if I'd ever have another project to the nightmare fantasy of fearing too many prospects would be interested at the same time.

The nightmare fantasy is real for someone who has lived through as many feast and famine cycles as I have. With this new tool in place I am confident that my 20 Nickels Plan will generate more opportunities if I lose an opportunity to bad timing. When I'm ready to look for a new project, I can call on the qualified leads who were willing to wait and see if I can convert any to a sale.

Hmm. It sounds like, by generating a pool of qualified leads ready to do business with me using my 20 Nickels Plan, I created my original Mythical Marketing Machine.

Ann Amati helps companies increase business-to-business sales through the unique process she uses to research customer feedback. She can be reached at Deliberate Strategies Consulting (www.accountloyalty.com)

Reported by Lori Richardson, networking resource for the Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska. Lori works as a sales coach and trainer for B2B companies through Score More Sales, a sales effectiveness organization. Her "Winning Teammates" program shows businesses how to grow profits by putting a process in place to nurture alliance partner relationships. For more information, and a free e-book, go to www.scoremoresales.com.

 

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Lori Richardson of Score More Sales can be reached at LoriR@TheNationalNetworker.com or Post a Comment on TNNW Blog. Her blog musings are available to read at www.scoremoresales.com