There are four things you can do to make business easier for you and transform the business to get the results you want:

1. Consistent marketing activity
I’m making a huge assumption here but you have a great business idea/product/service right? Then you need to tell your ideal market that you exist.  Marketing is an activity that needs to occur on a consistent basis so that your customers know you exist and can buy from you. Most business owners don’t engage in marketing activity for three reasons:

A. They don’t know the what works and the how to’s
B. They think it’s too expensive and
C. They want instant results or expect one activity to do all the work

Consistent marketing activity contains:  
•    A marketing plan – what do you want to achieve and how will you get there?
•    A budget – how much are you willing to or need to spend?
•    A time-line – when will you implement and evaluate the activities
•    Expertise – know what works or test and trial
•    Variety – normally to get great results you need a variety of activities one alone will not generate all the sales enquiries you will need to meet your sales targets
•    Time – ensure activities are consistent and give your activities a chance to work

2. Consistent sales process
Sales is an everyday activity, to transform your business for consistent results your business sales process needs to be consistent. You will need to consistently take action on the following for a successful sales process:
•    understand who your ideal customers are, and more specifically what are their frustrations, fears, wants and needs
•    work to a sales budget
•    have a clear understanding of how much each sale costs you
•    know what marketing activities are driving enquiries and where your customers are coming from
•    schedule sales activity time each day, week, month – calls, follow up, appointments, database management, networking
•    develop a cost effective fulfillment process
•    use your time in a dollar productive manner
•    a reward system (after all didn’t you start your business for an easier life?)

3. Consistent networking

When I first discovered the term for what I had naturally always done – networking it was from networking expert Robyn Henderson she had just published a book called “Be Seen, Get Known, Move Ahead”. For me that statement says it all for business owners today.

Many people mistake networking as a individual activity to simply meet people and/or contacts, when in fact networking is a powerful and valuable asset to your business. If you want to transform your results then you must view networking as an integral asset of the business and “Be Seen, Get Known, Move Ahead”.  If you have difficulty with how to network then take time to learn – take it from me it’s very easy and can be very rewarding. Networking is a bridge to sales results!

Take action today, then do it consistenty each and everyday of the week!

Cheers

Sue

I was interviewed for an article on networking recently and was asked when was the first time I used networking as a skill?? My answer.. I’ve been networking my entire life, I was brought up to value the people closest to me to maintain contact with them and to simply  ‘be nice to everyone’ .

My mum (Delma) is the best networker I know and keeps incredible records you see she has a book that contains birthdays for our entire extended family, their partners, children and even some in-laws! She can tell you when they were born, engaged, married, died, anniversaries you name it, it is in the book. It lists all her friends and their

details as well, it can tell you where I have worked, lived and holidayed, who my friends are and what they do and yes even their birthdays.

When I was young I could never quite ‘get’ why my mum made friends with so many people, now I know – she simply talks to people and asks questions and takes a genuine interest in what they do. She has friends all over this great country of ours and knows exactly who to call for assistance for anything. You need to allow a good hour to visit the local supermarket with her as she knows nearly everyone that walks past!

The interview got me thinking about modeled behaviour and when I look back I had the best networking role model I could possibly ask for. She was was the one who taught me the valuable lesson of smiling at everyone you meet in Delma’s words ‘if you smile at someone, they can’t help but smile back’.

Who in your life models exceptional networking skills? and what have you learnt from them?

Cheers

Sue

Yesterday I was fortunate to run a session on networking for aime09 (asia-pacific incentives & meetings expo). One of the things I love most about this event is I get to catch up with and connect with some business buddies that I have known for a long time.

Something that struck me while I was doing latte with some buddies was the fact that no matter how much time passes one things remains the same… our desire to maintain contact may only occur once or twice a year in a face to face manner but we stay connected via the phone, one anothers newsletters, emails and other online forums and we take the opporunties where they present themselves to connect, as we did in Melbourne.

My buddies in the picture, Susie Christie (www.globalspeakers.com.au) Robyn Henderson (www.networkingtowin.com.au) and Camille Valvo (www.emcee.com.au) are some of those long time connections that no matter how much time passes the catch up is always the same, lots of laughs, lots of ideas, lots of connections and lots of support for one another.

The four of us managed to fit in a networking event the night before our presentation and latte & hot chocolate afterwards, for me it doesn’t get much better than that.

I love what networking can bring into not only my business but my life as well.

Keep smiling!

Sue