How to waste time and money networking

IMG_1399, a photo by ENZPACEphotos on Flickr.

In the world of small business, networking is touted as the best method for acquiring new business leads.  It sure beats cold calling prospective clients.  And for an individual who spends hours alone in a home office, networking functions are both a welcome break and a reason to get dressed in real clothing.

Networking can be a terrific avenue for growing your business.  After all, relationships are the key to business, and networking helps to build relationships.  But too much networking, or the wrong approaches to it, can make it an expensive as well as unproductive marketing tactic. 

Here are some of the more common networking mistakes:

1. Not knowing who you want to meet.  You might not go to a function with a specific person in mind, but you need to know your target market.  Without that information you might be in the entirely wrong place.  If your market is executives, go where the executives hang out.  If you deal with micro businesses, attend small business functions.
2. Sitting on the sidelines.  You might feel uncomfortable at first, but everyone at a networking function is in the same boat.  Keep your goals in mind to help you overcome any feelings of shyness you might have.  Take a wing man with you, but only if you help one another to circulate.  The idea is to mix and mingle with a variety of people so you can know and become known.
3. Settling in on one conversation.  Sometimes discomfort with meeting strangers or feeling like a fish out of water causes people to find a willing conversationalist and then stay there.  This is a mistake for a couple of reasons.  First, that person, like you, is there to meet people.  When you park there you are interfering with them achieving their goals.  Second, this is not the setting for an in-depth conversation. Set an appointment to talk later and move on.  Think of it this way - if you have invested $20 in attending this function, one lead costs you $20.  If you acquire ten leads, each will only have cost you $2.  Which is the more sensible economic approach?
4. Engaging in selling behavior.  Networking is about building relationships.  Your job is to meet people there.  You have to earn the right to present your product or service to them, and if you're doing the networking job correctly you won't have time to gather enough information right now at the function to know whether this person in front of you is a real live prospect, a suspect (potential prospect), a potential center of influence or just another person there with his or her own goals to achieve.  Too much selling behavior too soon is a big turn-off, and it can cause you to lose real opportunities.
5. Over-serving oneself at the bar.  Perhaps this should go without saying, but when you are in business settings you want to have your wits about you, and alcohol can interfere with this.  It can feel like a relief to reduce some of your social inhibitions by having a beer or a glass of wine, but too much can cause you to make mistakes.  Irresponsible behavior with alcohol can translate into people assuming you are irresponsible in other ways - not a good position to be in when you are trying to build a positive image for yourself and your business.

In summary, networking is a great way to become known in your business community.  It can, however, consume significant financial and time resources.  If it's a big part of your marketing mix, make sure that you're getting your money's worth.

Two contrasting approaches to employee motivation

Theories about leadership come and go, but despite the trends your

Google Images - workingmoms.about.com

effectiveness usually comes down to the fundamentals:

1. how clearly you have identified and articulated the company direction, 
2. how effectively you build solid performance in your workforce, and
3. how well you make decisions and implement them

Today let's talk about leadership fundamental #2:  how effectively you build solid performance in your workforce.  It all starts with your basic assumptions about your employees and how they view their work.

The McGregor Theory, developed by Douglas McGregor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, talks about two contrasting views of employee motivation:  Theory X and Theory Y.  Each of these theories is going to influence the methods you use to lead.

Theory X - Assumes that people will do only the work that is necessary.  The Theory X manager uses methods of heavy oversight and control mechanisms, and might even use fear motivation (threat and coercion) to make sure that employees follow through on instructions.  Since the Theory X manager's assumption is that the employee is out to get something (a paycheck) for as little effort as possible, when something goes wrong the manager assumes that an employee is at fault.  He or she will overlook the impact of work processes and/or training when problems occur and go in search of a person to blame.

Theory Y - Assumes that people are self-motivated and have self-control.  A Theory Y manager will outline the expectations and then get out of the way for the employee to do what is necessary to successfully complete the job.  In contrast to Theory X, which relies on external means to motivate employees, Theory Y sees motivation as intrinsic to each individual.

Which is "better"?   The answer to this question is not as black-and-white as it might appear at first. Culturally many workplaces are moving more toward Theory Y-based management methods.  When companies are focused on increasing employee engagement, work teams are being given more authority to solve problems or initiate improvements to work processes.  

The use of Theory Y in management methodology doesn't mean that management is absent - only that it focuses more on making sure that effective training is providing a sound foundation for daily functioning and problem solving.  Management provides the resources through which teams and individual contributors satisfy customers.

A discussion of Theory X and Theory Y in general concept, though, does not take into consideration the unique personalities and needs of individuals in the workforce.  Effective management is situational, and there are times when employee experience and/or performance track record call for more (or less) external intervention and control.

If you look around at employee performance in your workplace and the accepted procedures for managing them you'll see evidence of Theory X or Theory Y, regardless of whether they have been applied intentionally or not.  If you see a gap between desired results and actual performance, your underlying assumption about employees and their motivation may be one contributing factor that you want to change.

Are you over-taxing your willpower?

Temptation,
a photo by <<Dino1081>> on Flickr.

You have a goal.  It might be to save $5000, or to lose 20 pounds, or to complete your project by a certain date.  You have developed a detailed game plan and started your implementation when----temptation strikes and threatens to take you off your chosen course.

Temptation might take the form of a "deal" in the window of your favorite store, or a large slice of pie that your grandmother made just for you, or an online game of solitaire that you have found to be quite addicting.  You already used your willpower to resist temptations today, and you're not sure you're strong enough to say no again, even though you know that your goal will be compromised if you succumb.

There is an assumption that lies behind the concept of willpower.  It assumes that these other things have control over you, and that they hold such sway over your choices that you have to fight back.  Is that accurate in your case?  Or is the strength of your goal such that it overpowers anything that is in your way?

The purpose behind setting goals is to help you focus your energy and your actions toward a predetermined end.  If you are setting a goal only because you think you should, or because someone else has told you to do so, you're probably not engaging the level of commitment that can withstand temptations.  You haven't fully built the case for it in your mind.  Your willpower will be tested because you don't want the goal enough to not want this other thing that's luring you off course.  The fight is on.

The answer to the willpower problem is in the why.  Why do you want to save $5000, or to lose 20 pounds, or to complete that project on or before deadline?  If you are not convinced by the reasons behind your goals - really convinced - you will be vulnerable to temptation.  If, on the other hand, your reasons are compelling enough, everyone and everything else had better get out of the way because you're doing it come Hell or high water.

Measuring learning and behavior change

This post is an excerpt from Changing Results by Changing Behavior, a leadership field guide by Julie Poland:

You might think that measurement of results would be a foregone conclusion ─ everyone does it, right?  That’s not been our experience.  Sure, leaders take a look at certain numbers like gross revenue, gross profit, cash balances and the like, but far fewer have a grip on measurement beyond that.

When there are hard dollar reasons to pursue behavior change it’s natural that hard dollar measurements should result.  If you engage someone to work with your sales staff you would expect to see movement in sales per rep, perhaps an increase in the number of presentations, or in their closing percentages.  Where you set concrete financial benchmarks at the beginning of your process you’ve set the stage for measuring the downstream effectiveness of your change efforts.

When you define the most appropriate measurements, you can more readily define the interim goals or behaviors that should lead to them.  Continuing with the sales example, what behavior changes would your reps need to make to close more sales?  Do they need to redefine their “ideal prospects?”  Do they need to learn more effective communication techniques to use during the sales process?  When you define expectations in specific terms, you help whatever outside resource you’re using (we’ll call it your improvement partner) to tailor a process that directly addresses your situation. The resulting process is more likely to help your people produce the desired results.

Communicating Success Measures when You Start

It’s important, when measuring progress, to tell the participants what the targets are before they start.  You (or the highest-ranking executive you can access) should personally participate in the project kickoff, setting the scene by laying out some performance goals. When you choose to do this:

• Participants realize that this isn’t in addition to their job, or tangential to their job ─ it is their job.
• You create an umbrella under which participants can set their individual goals as the process progresses.
• Participants will be able to help you achieve the results you want by addressing the piece that they can impact from their corner of your organization.

Levels of Measurement

You might be interested in finding out your employees’ reactions to whatever development or project-focused process you have involved them in, but that really only gives you a superficial view.  Reactions relate more to whether they liked the facilitator, the room and the snacks than whether the process was effective.  Yes, it does help to have an engaging facilitator, an accommodating space, etc.  But it takes more to evaluate the value of your investment.

You might also want to know about the amount of learning they acquired during training efforts. You can incorporate pre- and post-training exams if you want to increase the accountability for each person to participate fully in gaining the information they need to know.  One potentially undesirable side effect of content exams is that they can create the misperception that the primary goal is to obtain knowledge.  That’s not it ─ the change you seek may require a knowledge-download component, but ultimately application of knowledge is what creates the behavior change.

Your two most important categories of measurement will come from the behavior changes people make and the new results they achieve.  You and your improvement partner will be double-teaming during the change process, with your facilitator providing the tools and processes and you providing the support, context, alignment and accountability for your employees.  (You can see why it is advantageous to start with your senior leaders, so you can spread the responsibility around as you go through your company!) 

It is possible to see positive ratings and good exam scores without seeing changed behavior and results.  When that happens it can be because application isn’t built into the provider’s process, but more often it’s because there is little or no direct involvement from company leadership to help participants apply what they are learning to “the real world.”   It happens when company leadership has an expectation that the facilitator is driving the change.  While they can be an influence on your behalf, the facilitator does not control all of the other resources like organizational structure and rewards that will make or break the results you want to achieve.  You do.

Measuring Behavior Change

The simplest method my colleagues and I use to measure behavior change is the implementation of behavior-related goals.  In an earlier chapter I cited the example of the supervisor in saying “Good morning” every morning.  Behavioral goals can be tricky in that people will try to commit themselves to a major “go forth and sin no more” expectation ─ an ad infinitum standard that is difficult to sustain.  It’s preferable to keep the behavior narrow and specific and the early time frames short to create the opportunity for success.  For example:

• Each day this week I will plan the next day’s tasks before I leave the office.
•  For today I will ask questions so I better understand the other person’s point rather than dig in and argue my point of view.
• I will distribute a written agenda no later than 48 hours prior to the Friday staff meeting.

There are few goals too small to start the process of behavior change, as long as they meet the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable yet realistically high, and time-deadline stated).  Each has just a small impact, but together they create a critical mass of positive momentum.  In general terms, more difficult behavioral change goals should carry shorter time frames to keep them realistic.  You can evaluate your success on each goal and renew it if you want to refine your approach or commit to an additional segment of time.

Five reasons why the phone weighs fifty pounds

1949 Telephone, a photo by SmashBucketGallery on Flickr.

For readers who can't remember a time prior to smart phones, this is what phones looked like when your parents - or grandparents - were chatting with their high school friends.  You don't know what real dialing is, or how long it takes for the 9 to return to its position so you can dial the next number.  You could probably send ten texts in the time frame needed to dial one number the old fashioned way.

The old phone was certainly too heavy to carry in a pants pocket, even if you had a pocket the size of Bozo the clown's.  But the heaviness we're talking about today is the weight of your reluctance to pick up your smart phone and dial a prospective client to set up a get-acquainted meeting.

The phone isn't your only tool for prospecting, and some would say that they will never, ever cold call.  They will admit that it's too torturous for them with too few positive results.  But networking (one of the preferred marketing modes right now) is relatively slow when done right.  The object in networking is the relationship first, sometimes long before a prospective business relationship is on the agenda.  The phone, on the other hand, is your direct line to the in-person meeting, and most sales don't happen without that critical mid-process step.

So why is the phone so heavy?  Here are five reasons shared with us - see whether any of them resonate with you:

1. I don't know who to call
2. I don't know what I'm going to say
3. I'm only going to get their voice mail anyway
4. They don't want me interrupting their day
5. The last guy I called was downright rude to me

Who do you call?

It's best if you disconnect the generation of your call list from your calling process.  It's a great activity for non-peak hours.  Make a list, include the phone numbers, and leave room for taking notes once the calling begins.  The length of your list should be determined by the number of appointments you want to make.  Use your prior success rate to work backwards; if you want your result to be eight scheduled appointments and about 50% of the people you talk to say yes you'll need 16 names on your list.  If only a third of the people that you try to talk to are actually reachable you'll need to have three times that many - 48 - ready to go if you want to be uninterrupted in your calling process once you start.

What are you going to say?

You need to have an agenda for the call so you don't fall subject to a brain cramp.  You can create a script, or a more outline-formed call guide with the key points in a few bullets.  It's important to keep you on track, to enable you to stay focused on the other person rather than on your own thought formulation.  When creating a script it's important to remember that while nothing works 100% of the time, the more consistency you use in your approach the better you are able to evaluate and improve your methods.  Test and measure. This, of course, means that if you want to improve you need to track your phone activities (#attempts, #contacts #appointments, etc.) and analyze your results.

Voice mail hell

You need to incorporate a plan for voice mail into your calling. Do you want them to call you back?  Think carefully about this, because if you are calling 150 people today and a Mr. Smith comes through on your line out of context later today it might take you a few minutes to figure out that it's the same Mr. Smith that you tried to reach this morning.  And if you're not going to be in the office later anyway their return call will only be an exercise in frustration.  Some people leave only their name - so it becomes familiar - on voice mail.  Others leave a short commercial.  Just beware of giving so much information that the prospect makes a buy or no-buy decision based upon your message.  You aren't even close to that point in a valid sales process.  If you're presenting over voice mail you're jumping the gun - by a long shot.

I'm an interruption and an annoyance

It's easier when you are not calling completely cold.  This IS where it's beneficial to gather names of prospective clients through in-person contacts, provided that you're not irritating in person!  When you have met someone recently and you follow up promptly you already have a shared experience through which you can develop rapport on the phone.  Whether you already know this person or not, though, you want to ask whether you're calling at an OK time, you want to be brief and to the point, and you want to remember that you have only one goal for this call - to establish an appointment.  If they don't want to meet, politely thank them and say "Next!" inside your head.  On-the-phone arm-twisting or pleading places you at a strategic disadvantage, and it doesn't create the foundation for a client-centered meeting.  When you pressure you're making it all about you and your need to have a meeting, and that's not the proper focus if you want to create the foundation for a long, mutually beneficial relationship with them. 

The last guy I talked to was downright rude

When you call you ARE an interruption in the sense that you are an unplanned part of their day.  Some people deal well with that and some people don't, so you are likely to run across somebody that's a bit testy.  You can help yourself here through a few simple strategies:

• Ask whether it's an OK time to talk
• Keep it brief and to the point - your goal is to set an appointment, not to educate, sell, persuade, etc.
• Be prepared with a list of potential objections and responses

An objection is not necessarily a stop sign - it is often a request for more information.  When you are prepared to handle certain objections you improve your confidence for the call, meaning that the person on the other end is less likely to shake you.  An objection might be a sincere misunderstanding about your company, what you do, and the purpose of your request for a meeting.  Once you answer the objection(s) you may wind up with the desired appointment.  But if they come in an unending stream, cut bait and say "Next!" inside your head.  There's somebody else out there who is open to you, and your job is to find him or her.

The phone need not weigh fifty pounds.  Preparation is huge in winning this internal battle.  But so is building time for it into your daily or weekly routine.  When you are trying to improve, higher frequency is better than lower frequency.  When you call a lot you can more readily remember the mistakes you made the last time and avoid them.  You can more easily repeat the strategies that worked on the last call until you make them second nature.  And you won't allow enough time for the inner voices to psych you out.

Track your numbers.  This helps you measure your success, identify your best practices, and improve.  It also takes the process from an emotionally-charged one to a data-collection project.  Once you know your numbers you can manage tomorrow's activities based upon results-based information.  And that makes the phone a whole lot lighter.

Should your company have a blog?

The first time I heard of the term blog (short for weblog,) was when a website designer recommended it about nine years ago as a way to keep the website for my coaching company fresh.  She explained that when website content changes, search engine spiders find the site more easily.  Even though most new clients find my business through personal contact and not through a web search, I was game to try it to see whether it would improve my visibility in a Google search.  I finally wrote and posted my first blog entry in September of 2005, and by now blogging has become an integral part of my marketing mix.

Why a blog may be good for your business

Beyond boosting your search engine ranking, you can achieve a number of additional goals by writing a blog:

• Expand your visibility in various social media.
• Establish your expertise in your industry, differentiating yourself from your competition.
• Share information about new developments in products and services, to attract new and repeat customers.
• Provide a platform through which you can find out what customers are thinking about your business.  The engagement with customers is perhaps the ultimate goal, but not for the fainthearted.  Be sure that you really want to know what they are saying before you ask the questions!

Getting started with blogging

The simplest method to get a blog going is to use one of the online platforms.  Blogger (a Google product) and Wordpress are two of the most commonly used blog platforms.  You establish an account, name your blog and select a template for the appearance of your blog.  Your blog will have its own URL (for example, thefriendlyplumber.blogspot.com) that you can link to your main company website so that every blog update you do will automatically show up there.

Content and blog frequency

Your selection of content will be one of the chief determiners of the frequency at which you post to your blog.  If you are a news blogger, for instance, a once daily post will leave you in the dust behind bloggers who are online the moment after a story develops.  Most likely, however, your posts will either be informational and educational or commentary and opinion.  If there is not time sensitivity in your content you will determine your own posting frequency:  daily, biweekly, weekly, etc.  The goal is enough frequency to attract regular readers and search engines, but only enough that it is sustainable for you to do.

Knowing your audience

When you know the audience to whom you are targeting your posts it is much easier to select content, and to determine the tone of your writing.  For instance, if you are addressing teenaged skateboarders   in your blog you’ll choose different language than if you are blogging to middle-aged businesspersons.   What does your target audience want to know, and what is it that you’d like to know from them?

Attracting readers

If you’re going to the effort of producing blog posts you want it to be read by more than you, your spouse and your mother.  So how do you spread the reach of your blog?

1. Your content – When you write about valuable information people will share it and comment on it. 
2. Make your blog available in multiple venues.  One post can appear in several places – as a matter of fact you can even print a few and make them available in your business location, send them with invoices, or in other communication with customers.  Always, always include the URL so people can look you up later if they want to see more posts.
3.  Check out group blogging sites, where different pools of people can find you.  Your local newspaper may have an online community blogging section where you can automatically submit your blog posts.  There are sites organized by genre (like MomBloggers) where you can share your posts.  And Alltop is a site where dozens of blogs can be found by category (you have to apply and be selected to be accepted there.)
4. Announce your blog updates by including a link to your newest post in your status updates on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
5. Help readers become regulars.  Feedburner can help your regular readers to receive your updates in their email.  People can also read your posts on GoogleReader, one spot where they can obtain feeds from all of their favorite blog sites.  Google Reader is going away as of July 1, 2013, but you and your readers can migrate smoothly to the “heir” to Google Reader – Feedly.com.1.       
6. Interact with other bloggers in your industry.  Bloggers form a community – they can guest post for one another, comment on posts, provide ideas for content and technical improvements, etc.  This isn't a journey you have to take by yourself.

The Knowledge Paradox

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - Confucius

It's funny how the person in the room who is compelled to share the most unsolicited expertise is often the person with the least information....

One of the most challenging positions to be in is one where you don't even know the questions, much less the answers.  This illustration shows that as your body of knowledge increases, the circumference of its border increases along with it.  The border represents the information of which you are aware you are ignorant.

Real knowledge, therefore, is typically. accompanied by humility.  You can study certain subjects for all of your life and never master more than a sliver of the content that you're studying.  From the vantage point of every new mountain peak you reach you can see a vista of heretofore unconquered other peaks in front of you.

When you realize that you indeed don't know it all you become more open to adding to your body of knowledge - or you become willing to collaborate with individuals and resources that can help you to fill the gaps.  One person can't know everything about everything.

In your desire to feel in control of your work and your life, sometimes it's easier to sit on top of your current knowledge and stay there.  It can feel uncomfortable to admit that you don't know, because such an admission can feel like a loss of face.  Could you be perceived as an imposter in your leadership role if you don't know everything about your area?

Your biggest risks are in the area beyond the green border - those things that you don't know you don't know.  In this position, not only do you not know the answers, but you aren't aware that there are questions that need to be answered!

The remedies to the knowledge paradox can be found in

• humility
• confidence enough to ask questions
• willingness to collaborate
• ability to identify reliable knowledge resources

Unless you are in an academic setting where knowledge for the sake of knowledge is the goal, no matter your knowledge inventory, it's moot unless you apply it.  You can build success by teaming up with external sources of knowledge to accomplish your goals.  You can implement just-in-time learning so application follows close on the heels of the acquisition of the information.

But it's in your attitude about your knowledge - and your ignorance - that you will find peace, teamwork, and mastery.  Confucius say.