Sep
10
How to Alienate Your On-Line Client Base In One Easy Step
Posted by the Networking Goddess in Online Networking, Networking Tips, Networking Groups and Functions, General
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How to Alienate Your On-Line Client Base In One Easy Step
You’ve spent a great amount of time finding your contacts on the Internet. You’ve starting participating in the places they are. You’re ready to take on the world now. Stop. Without a thorough understanding of the following concept, you can potentially lose your client base.
*Everyone in the fields that you want to make contact with WILL NOT do business in the same manner as you do, PARTICULARLY if they are not from your own country.
What does this mean? It means that the little things that you do every day, could potentially cause you to lose your online contacts. It means that you need to learn a whole lot more about customs and traditions before expecting to build strong, solid relationships. It means you may make a mistake or two, but you need to be prepared to go through a tremendous learning curve.
True life story. I’m borrowing from a popular current trend here in the US when I write about this story. The countries involved are Mars and Venus. (Here in the US, those are men and women, but in my story, they are actually persons from different countries).
Mars joins an email list that is composed of mostly business professionals from Venus, but are a great potential client base. On Venus, things are done differently than on Mars, even though both countries speak the same language. Mars reads the list for a while months, in fact).
After months, Mars begins to post informational posts to the lists-resource tips and business development information gleaned from various Internet sources. Keep in mind, this particular information was not specifically ASKED for, but in the spirit of sharing, Mars thinks this is a good thing to do- after all, sharing is good. AND Mars has been sharing the same information on OTHER e-mail lists and hearing how valuable it has been to people from THOSE countries (Like Saturn).
Venus becomes upset. First, because 7 posts arrive from Mars in one day. All different, but still *7* posts!. Then Venus is upset with the content of the posts. Does Mars think that Venus does not KNOW this information, or worse yet, does not know where to find it? And who said Venus NEEDED this information, anyway? What a totally Un-Venetian thing to do!
The rest, as they say, is history. In this example, there is proof that doing the same thing in the same way WILL NOT necessarily get you the same results. The main variable here, is the fact that the two participants were from two different countries with two different cultures. Both styles work in their homeland but will they work on an International basis? That remains to be seen.
Help With Understanding Other Cultures
To aid you in understanding the various cultures YOUR client
base may be composed of, the following is suggested:
1. Use your favorite search engine to search for sites specializing in international culture.
2. Befriend someone who is a native in the area you are looking to expand. Ask questions and LISTEN to what the answers are. Find out how your actions would be perceived by natives of that culture.
3. Expect to make mistakes as you learn about each culture. Plan on varying YOUR style and methods to accommodate your potential client base.
4. Help those of other cultures understand YOURS. If asked, offer advice and suggestions on how YOU would have handled the same thing in your culture. What path would you have taken to the get to the same place THEY want to go?
Working on the Internet exposes us all to the world. We need to learn more about that world to be effective and productive. We still cannot say that EVERYONE from Mars acts the same way, and so EVERYONE from Venus. But STYLES that are common in each culture often come through as inappropriate for other cultures. Don’t lose your client base because of YOUR style.
Nancy
Your Networking Goddess
Sep
10
How To Ensure You Get What You Need When Networking
Posted by the Networking Goddess in Online Networking, Networking Tips, Networking Groups and Functions, General
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How To Ensure You Get What You Need When Networking Online.
The online business environment offers the small business professional different challenges than ones presented in a live networking forum. Without voice inflection, eye contact and body language to aid in the relationship-building process, it may seem like the time spent online is unproductive. If you have been actively participating online, and not getting the results you expected, here are some pointers that help determine “WHY?”.
1. Are you networking in the right places? By “right places”, I mean, is your client base there and is the forum designed for networking.
2. Have you established credibility? This takes TIME. In my experience, two years is not unheard of for establishing credibility.
3. Are you saying the right things about what you want and need? In other words, do people understand what you are looking for?
4. Do you understand how to be “mutually-beneficial” in the relationships you form online?
5. Are you using all the avenues available to you for networking online, or are you working in one forum with one group of people? Do you have a good signature file, are you using autoresponders, and have you considered writing for or starting your own, ezine?
6. Have you got an “online” plan for securing business? This may be totally different than what you use offline. In fact, it will probably be more effective if it is.
7. Are your offline activities referring people to your online efforts?
All of these points, done properly, will increase the amount of business you get online. Any items above that aren’t currently part of your online networking strategies can be added for increased success.
Nancy
Your Networking Goddess
Sep
9
The Importance of Honesty in Networking Relationships
Posted by the Networking Goddess in Online Networking, Getting Leads, General
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The Importance of Honesty in Networking Relationships
This topic may seem a bit obvious to those who read my work frequently. But I’d like to touch on some things that may not be so obvious when making the most of networking relationships. There are times when being honest (and being tactful about it) are essential
to ensuring that you spend your time making money, not chasing it.
Let’s look at what you say about yourself to your fellow networking team. If your presentation is very specific, you will give them small details about what you do that lead to big dollars. You will help them focus on faces and send you leads.
You won’t say you can do something that you you THINK you can, but aren’t really sure you can. Why? Because your networking team will be referring their contacts to you based on what you say you can do. You won’t get another lead from someone EVER if you say you will do something and you don’t - with one of their referrals. Remember, someone referring to you is endorsing you. When you look good, they look good. When you don’t…well, you know.
What happens when you start getting leads that really AREN’T leads for you? There are two reasons for this:
1. Your networkers don’t really understand what you do and you need to look at what you are telling them about yourself.
2. Your networkers have stopped “hearing” you when you speak and you need to vary what you say and how you say it.
In either case YOU can fix this. And what happens when you STILL get referrals that are not really leads for you? You tell the person who gave them to you. You thank them and tell them that this is not a lead for you and why.
The process of networking involves educating your sales force (also known as your networking team). That education means that, if someone doesn’t really “get” what you need, you educate them. And you do that by being honest with them when they refer non-leads to you.
A word of caution about honesty. It is not advisable to tell your networking team everything about your personal life. These people are doing business with you (or will be) and are referring business to you (or will be). Your credibility also lies in what you think is appropriate to tell a business associate. We all have friends and we have business associates. Sometimes people are both. But more often, they are one or the other. There is such a thing as too much information when building a networking team. Consider how your
networking team will view your business acumen when deciding what to share with whom.
Nancy
Your Networking Goddess