Business isn't difficult. People just make it so. After all, who chooses to go after everyone, trying to sell everything using every selling channel? Not you, of course!There are two simple steps that will help your business development and your networking tremendously.
1. Know What You Sell
First you've got to sell yourself. Ask yourself:
- How do I generate any kind of impact and create a good first impression?
- How do make myself engaging and memorable?
To become ‘extraordinary', recognise that good networking comes out of knowing the right events to go to, having the right things to say and implementing them with the right actions.
Second, you've got to sell your products and services. You need a pitch or opening. An elevator speech. The pro networkers have a strong proposition. Ask yourself:
- What is it about what you're selling that makes you special?
- Why should I choose you above and beyond all of my other choices, including doing nothing?
In a crowded, predatory marketplace, you're looking for attention. You're looking to stand out in some small but significant way. Differentiate or lose!
Question: Are you the first, best, cheapest, latest, oldest, newest, fastest, closest, biggest, smallest or safest?
Question: Are you the most radical, convenient, innovative, experimental, strategic, thorough, global, positive, entrepreneurial, relationship-based, profit-centric, results-focused or customer-led?
Question: As well as the stuff your competitors do, are you also an author, thought leader, innovator, campaigner, speaker, coach, mentor, consultant, connector, referrer, philanthropist, problem-solver and comedian?
You've got to have some edge. Some hook. Something to set you apart. Only needs to be slight. Just enough.
2. Know Who You Sell To
When you know what your best customer or client looks like, you can go looking for them. The pro networkers know their target market or niche.
"Great minds think alike, as long as they think like you!"
Seth Godin
You can find anybody if you know what they look like and where they hang out! Ask yourself:
- What problems or challenges does your ideal prospect have?
- What's your target market?
- What kind of people come to you?
When you can find that hungry crowd, when you can locate the community, that sector, that niche, that tribe that has a problem you can solve, you've got a business.
Or are you just packing your case with the stuff you've already got and going out there looking for people to sell it to?
Business is simple. Networking is simple. Sell you to yourself. Sell your products and services. And sell to an audience that needs what you do.
Easy, right? As the meerkat would tell you with the brand that found a hungry crowd...simples!
