Don’t neglect face-to-face marketing!

A few months ago I explained that I had started working on a marketing campaign to promote my business that involved signing up to many of the well-known social networking websites. And recently, with the launch of my new business website I’ve been investigating ways to attract to attract more visitors to it (and, hopefully, more new clients) by developing a web marketing strategy. As a result, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of material, advice and tools there are to implement such an Internet-based marketing campaign.

However, according to a recent survey carried out by Vodafone UK, face-to-face meetings are still the most effective way to secure new business. Apparently, only 33% of those surveyed have won business solely via e-mail or Internet marketing, compared with 57% who used the traditional method of face-to-face contact. About 20% of managing directors wouldn’t do business with anyone they hadn’t physically met, and over a quarter of them would refuse to buy from someone they hadn’t at least spoken to on the phone.

About 47% of business people expected to be treated to lunch, 25% preferred to discuss deals over a round of drinks and 10% said they were happiest building a commercial relationship with a prospective client on the golf course.

It seems that online marketing is most popular with younger people – almost half of those in their twenties prefer to do business this way, whereas two-thirds of all business people prefer to network with others face-to-face.

Therefore, the results of this survey seems to indicate that it is important for you to mix old methods of networking with new ones, or else you could be missing out on obtaining that vital contract you were seeking. This also probably explains the popularity of business breakfast clubs such as Business Network International, 4Networking and The Business League, but so much could be said about that it could be the subject of an entirely new blog. So watch this space!

BNI – All Gong and No Dinner?

In July 2006 I joined the local Lowman Chapter of Business Network International (BNI). I was attracted by the attitude and enthusiasm of the members of the chapter and the local leadership team. The BNI ethos is that ‘Givers Gain’, whereby members that you’ve given business to will naturally want to reciprocate and find or give you business in return.

The idea is that members of each chapter act as a virtual sales force trying to find business for each other. I was warned at the beginning that it was not a quick fix, and that I would have to gradually build up the trust and respect of my fellow members and ‘train’ them to know what to look for in terms of potential clients over a period of perhaps two years before my investment (i.e. the money I spent on membership and meeting fees) would bring the desired returns. To quote from the BNI Training Manual, the process ‘is more about farming than it is about hunting. It is about the cultivation of rewarding relationships within a structured environment, for the mutual benefit of all’. So far so good!

However, what they don’t tell you at the beginning is that the BNI business model predicts that each chapter can expect to lose, on average, one member per month (i.e. 12 members per year). In other words, a chapter that has spent a lot of time and effort growing to 20 members can expect to lose up to 60 per cent of its ’sales force’ over a period of a year. Surely this scenario is unsustainable! How are you expected to cultivate a lasting and beneficial relationship with another BNI member if that person is likely to leave in a few months’ time?

In order to grow, businesses need stability. They need a loyal and reliable workforce who are willing to put all their effort into producing the goods for clients over a sustained and lengthy period of time. No business can afford to lose 60 per cent of its workforce each year – it is inordinately expensive to recruit and train new members of staff. It is far more efficient and effective to encourage existing members of staff to remain with the company for a period of several years. BNI claims to be the most successful business referral organization in the world. So why are people leaving it in such numbers?

Perhaps, when they joined BNI they were attracted by all the promises of extra business they would receive from their fellow members of the chapter, but they needed some concrete results in order to retain their confidence in the organization. Admittedly, some people do very well out of it – each referral on average is estimated to be worth £330, based on the figures produced by BNI in the United Kingdom, but I’m sure that if some people or firms are picking up business worth, for example, £26,000 or even £100,000, there are plenty of others who are picking up naff all! And if those others don’t pick up enough business in the first year to justify paying approximately £1,000 in membership and meeting fees, then they’ll give up BNI as a bad job and move on to something more rewarding, more lucrative or less expensive.

Other people may find it difficult to attend the regular BNI breakfast meetings every week because they have clients or other work commitments that they need to meet in order to earn their living. BNI is very strict when it comes to attending meetings – members are are allowed just three absences in six months. If you miss even just one meeting without sending a substitute in your place you can expect a phone call from a member of the chapter’s membership committee asking why you were absent. Any further absences on your part trigger the sending of a formal letter – and it really is a case of ‘three strikes and you’re out!’ That’s right! A fair number of the members who leave BNI are in fact expelled for ‘poor’ attendance! You can also be expelled for not bringing enough referrals or enough visitors to meetings. In other words, you are expected to grow the BNI business or else you are asked to leave.

Speaking for myself, I don’t mind bringing visitors to a meeting if I think that it will be of benefit to them, or give referrals to people if I think that person can do a good job for someone who needs that service, but I would far rather be spending my time growing my own business than trying to grow the BNI business. ‘Givers Gain’ is all very well if we lived in an ideal world but in practice I’ve found it a bit like ‘pie in the sky’. I think to myself, do I really want to depend on other people to promote my business when they are all probably very busy running their own businesses? Are they simply passing ‘referrals’ to other members of the BNI chapter to ‘play the game’ and avoid being shown the door for not ‘contributing’ to the chapter? Everyone in the chapter is in the same position – they almost certainly know their own business better than they know mine, so I’m probably the best person to find clients for my own business.

Eventually, I left BNI because I was being asked to invite guests to our meetings as part of a recruitment campaign but I felt that I could not, in all honesty, recommend it to some one else as a viable business proposition. At the time, during the middle of October, the Lowman Chapter had fewer than ten members on its books, from a high point of over twenty, and during the past month at least five other members have left.

But no matter! I have now joined the Business League, which is growing rapidly in the South West of England, and which seems determined to do everything possible to retain members rather than drive them away (and seems to be full of ex-BNI members!). But that will be the subject of another post!

How do I Find Time to Write Every Day?

One of the first things I was taught while on a blogging course was the importance of keeping my blog up to date by writing something in it at least once every week. I made a resolution at the time to do just that – after all, I want people to be regular visitors to my blog to read what I’ve written.

It started off OK because I had plenty of material in my “back catalogue” that I could post on my blog, and at the time I was having to write a 60-second presentation every week to promote my business at BNI that I could use as the basis, or so I thought, for my weekly post on my blog.

But then things changed in my life. The local chapter of BNI fell apart and I was no longer required to write a witty presentation each week. At the same time my business workload increased, which meant that I was spending all day, every day, in front of my computer editing articles that other people had written. This meant that I had no desire to spend my spare time, if I had any, in front of the computer updating and editing my blog. Although I was spending some spare time in front of the computer, my interest in family history meant that it was being filled by visiting the Ancestry and the Genes Reunited websites, and entering data on to my genealogy software program.

As a result, my blog has barely been touched for about six weeks and the number of visitors has dropped to nearly zero. So what can I do about it? One thing that I have noticed is that I have plenty of ideas first thing in the morning and I lie in my bed composing potential articles in my head before I get up. However, by the time I’ve got up, got washed and changed, and I’ve started to make my breakfast my initial enthusiasm and creativity has waned, and I find myself thinking more about my next editing job I have to do for one of my existing clients.

So, the answer is simple! I get up at least one hour earlier each morning and write something for my blog before breakfast. As I write this, in long hand, it is eight o’clock in the morning and I’ve written virtually an entire post without much effort. The next challenge is to enter it on to the blog – but I can probably do that this evening – and if you’re reading it now it means that I’ve passed that challenge without any problems. It’s amazing how easy it is to type something up once you’ve written the first draft and it’s there in front of you.

Right! I’ve proved that it can work – now I’ve just got to make sure that I can keep it up. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem as long as I treat it like a training schedule in preparation for running a marathon (or any other distance, for that matter). After all, every evening during the week, without fail, I go out jogging. So, early every morning during the week, without fail, I must write something for my blog.

There, that wasn’t too difficult, was it! Same again tomorrow? We’ll see – I’ve got a business breakfast early tomorrow morning but I’ll try and write something, even if it’s only a few lines. So, watch this space!

Sell Your Services in Sixty Seconds!

A couple of days ago I received an invitation to attend a workshop on how to give a better 60-second sales presentation, all for the princely sum of £147 plus VAT! With the popularity of networking clubs that are springing up all over the United Kingdom right now, I suppose the person offering this workshop is hoping to fulfil a need – or are they just jumping on the bandwagon?

But you don’t need to spend that sort of money to learn how to sell your services in 60 seconds. I’ve been doing it for more than a year now at my local chapter of Business Network International (BNI); the technique is fairly simple and readily available if you are prepared to look for it. In a nutshell, this is how you go about it.

The first thing you do is tell your audience who you are, the name of your business and what service or product you provide for your customers. Keep it as simple as possible: it should take you no longer than 10 seconds. For example, one person I know simply stands up and starts by saying, “I’m Susan Grafton and I’m a bookkeeper.”

In the next 15 seconds you should tell people why you are so good at what you do and why they should refer business to you rather than to any of your competitors. Don’t be afraid to brag at this stage. If one of your clients is a blue-chip company or a well-respected person in your community be sure to say so. And if you’ve received a testimonial from somebody tell your listeners about it and offer to show it to them afterwards. All this will add to your credibility.

Next, you tell your audience what your target market is – who you want to work with or have as clients – and describe the problems that you can solve for them. For example, I work with publishers, graphic designers, web designers, advertising and marketing consultants and even would-be authors; in fact, anybody who has a problem with the written word. A particularly effective phrase to use here is “Who do you know who…” and describe the problem that you can solve for them. This should take no more than 20 seconds.

Then, use the next 10 seconds to be very specific about who you want to do business with. In other words, if you want to be introduced to the sales manager of a specific, named company, then say so. He or she might be in the audience listening to you, or somebody else in the audience might know that specific individual personally and be able to put you in touch with them.

In the final 5 seconds of your presentation, remind your audience of who you are, the name of your business and use a short, pithy phrase that describes what you do. In BNI we call this a “memory hook” because it helps people remember what you do if they meet potential clients who could use your services or product. For example, my memory hook is “Making what you write even better!”

To make your presentation as effective as possible, write down what you want to say a few days beforehand and practise saying it out loud to make sure that it is not too long. If it is, edit it so that the timing is exactly right. I normally work on the basis that a 60-second presentation should be no more than 165 words long. If it’s any longer than this, then there is the danger that you’ll be counted out or interrupted by the network club’s timekeeper before you’ve finished what you want to say.

Finally, try to learn your presentation off by heart. It will be far more effective if it sounds as if you are talking naturally and off the cuff to your listeners than if you are merely reading from a script parrot-fashion.

If you want more information on how to give a more effective 60-second sales presentation, post a comment on my blog and I’ll get in touch with you.

A Shaggy Dog Story with a Difference

Part of my job as a copywriter is to find out as much as I can about a client’s business so that I can fully understand what makes it different and decide on the unique selling proposition (USP) that best promotes it in the marketplace. Unfortunately, sometimes I find out something that a client would rather keep quiet about.

For example, a few months ago a client promised me some work to help him produce some brochures for a dog-food supplier.

Apparently, this Chappie wanted me to be his Pedigree Chum so that together we could Winalot of business.

However, he was a bit of a ‘wag’ and his ‘tail’ was a shaggy as a sheepdog. I’m not just anybody’s poodle so, after a short ‘paws’ for thought, I used my faithful bloodhound Google to track down the truth. I soon found that my client wasn’t the Crufts champion he claimed to be and I realized that I’d been sold a pup and I’d be barking mad to take up his offer, because doing business with him would become a bit of a bitch.

Meanwhile, my client had mysteriously gone ‘Walkies!’, so my dilemma about whether I should work with him was solved.

BNI: Where Breakfast Really Brings in the Business!

Early every Friday morning a florist, a writer, a window cleaner, a bookkeeper, a web designer and about twelve other entrepreneurs meet for breakfast at the Tiverton Hotel in Blundell’s Road, Tiverton in order to promote their respective businesses and pass referrals to each other.

They are all members of the Lowman Chapter of Business Network International (BNI), the most successful business referral organization in the world, which now has over 500 chapters and 11,800 members in the United Kingdom, and which generated more than £185 million worth of business for its members last year. Worldwide, there are nearly 4,000 chapters and 100,000 members of BNI.

Only one person per profession is allowed to join a chapter, which means that there is no conflict amongst members when passing business between them because competitors cannot take part. However, the Lowman Chapter has several vacancies and members are very keen to recruit, for example, a painter and decorator, a plumber, an accountant, a hairdresser and even a funeral director so that they can pass business to them.

So, if you think that you fit the bill or you think that BNI could help you grow your business, then just turn up for breakfast at the Tiverton Hotel on any Friday morning. The meeting starts promptly at 7 a.m. You will be made very welcome. See you there!

(I wrote this as part of an advertorial promoting the local chapter of BNI that appeared in the Mid Devon Star on Friday 13 July 2007)