Maverick Mastery®

In this Century we are faced with a sceptical buying audience especially when our services are high end, high value. This means we are faced with some choices; we can reduce our prices, alter our business offerings or find a way to be ‘attractive’ to our potential customers – a way where they find us for our services rather than we spend our time looking for them to buy.

In this day and age these can be tough choices.

If you choose to keep your prices and business offerings the same then you need to ensure that your potential clients see you as ‘attractive’. Being ‘attractive’ to our customers begins with ensuring that you have a business proposition that is clear and understandable. If you have more than one business proposition then you need to ensure that you only describe or explain your proposition to the right audience at the right time, and increasingly on the right online network. Unless you are speaking to your inner network describing all your propositions will be seen as confusing and condemn you as a generalist. Only very few generalists with high end, high value services are bought these days. Our sceptical buyers want to buy from ‘the’ expert. It provides a comfort factor and is more likely to reduce any potential buyer’s remorse. Below I have outlined two must do things that you need to achieve to ensure that potential clients buy your services.

How to have a winning proposition

There are a number of things that you need to do to ensure that your proposition has a chance in standing out. These include the following:

v  Be sure of what it is that you have to offer. This may sound like an obvious statement but I have found that clients who start my business accelerator session (whether they have just started up in business or who have been in business for a long time) can often miss exactly what it is that makes their business special and the magic ingredient that they bring to it. This is more than having a Unique Selling Proposition, this is about knowing the deep roots of your business and what it is that you bring to your clients that no one else can.

What is it that you bring to your business that makes it sing?

v  Get back to basics or first principles. When you have been running a business for awhile it is easy for you to divert away from your core proposition or to confuse your offering with industry jargon. A lot of business people first had a career in corporate land and then unwittingly use the same language when they describe their services. This doesn’t really work unless you have a well known brand and have been able to spend the time educating your potential audience on what you have to offer.

What does your service do – in plain compelling English?

v  Ensure that your offering has a market. It is very easy to get swept up in the service that you want to deliver and miss what it is that your customers want to buy. Often your proposition is close to what the market wants and a few people buy – a slight tweak can enable you to have mass appeal.

Listen to what your customers are telling you – and fish where the fish are

v  Learn how to articulate your proposition so that others understand. This is a key crux as to why it is hard to buy your services. One of the best ways to solve this is to work with a mentor that has experience in helping people like you that can solve this conundrum. Another way is to spend time asking your previous clients what they got from your service (there are always pleasant surprises there!), breaking down the core components and then crafting a compelling story that describes your service and how you help your clients.

Ensure that what you do fits your business strategy

Leveraging your reputation

Buying high end, high value, high cost services are considered purchases and in a recession one that a buyer cannot afford to make frivolously.  In which case before they buy your service they will check out your reputation first. Last century a lot of this checking would have been offline with people that you know well and by referencing paid for advertising. This century, offline referencing is still vital but online referencing of your reputation is becoming all important and essential first steps prior to a purchasing decision being made.

The first thing someone does when they are considering buying your services is to check you out on the web. Reputation and credibility is made up of trust, character, competence and track record. It is possible to leverage your reputation but first you must decide what you want to be known for.

What you are known for is essential for people to buy your services.

To leverage your reputation online you should include (amongst other things) the following:

v  Having a Networking Strategy. Your networking strategy should include your strategy for what you are going to do online and offline to integrate your Outer, Middle and Inner networks. You will have clear goals and objectives, and understand the messages that you will be articulating to each group. Demonstrating that you are networking for advocates rather than customers is likely to endear you to your audience. Being able to have cohesive and professional conversations across a number of platforms with diverse people will enhance your reputation as an expert in your field.

v  Having a reputation management strategy. Are you aware of what people are saying about you and your brand? Do you have a strategy in dealing with both supporters and detractors of your message? Are the things that you are doing adding value to your reputation and business?  These amongst others are important questions that your strategy should be answering.

v  Dominate your niche – be the only person considered the best in your niche. Do your online profiles demonstrate your expertise in your chosen field? When you are ‘googled’, what will people find? If people are searching for your expertise are you easily found? To be able to leverage your reputation so that you are ‘attractive’ to your potential customers you need to be seen to dominate your niche. That means using the appropriate Social Media tools in your arsenal and being the only person who other people talk about when discussing your area of expertise. It is a lot easier to do this than you imagine!

v  Have a clear and consistent online/offline message. A great way to destroy reputation is to be inconsistent. People do not trust inconsistency so if you say ‘you help your clients by providing conflict training’ don’t be seen having an online argument with a group of people on an internet forum! You should never assume that something that is said negatively or ‘robustly’ in a private forum will not have an impact on your public persona. In this century your personal and business personas are explicitly linked.

Wondering why it seems so hard for potential clients to buy your services, especially in this climate is a question that is being asked constantly by business people every way. The key to solving this dilemma is to have a clear understanding of what you do and how you add value, providing a clear and consistent message and finally leveraging your reputation as an expert in your field.

Consultants and small business owners are being given the opportunity to learn the secrets of a successful networking strategy thanks to a new teleclass seminar from reputation specialist Judith Germain.

During the one hour teleclass which takes place on 22^nd July at 10.30am, Judith Germain, managing director of Dynamic Transitions, will be revealing how to leverage your personal brand and understand, define and design a networking strategy which gains more advocates and referrals.

Germain, who has over 15000 members in her network which spans Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn and as well as various offline networks, is also the Vice President of Blackstar Life Members Community of popular business social networking site Ecademy and has delivered networking strategy training to hundreds of businesses across the globe.

Recruitment Consultant David Shirley has taken one of Germain’s networking courses and says, “Jude covered a fair amount of ground in a short time and I have picked up several pointers around defining your circles of contacts (outer, middle, inner) and who populates those circles, linking together sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter etc, uses for Tweet Later and on, and on. This session was so useful to me as a newcomer to online networking.”

Germain believes that, many consultants and SME business owners forget that people increasingly buy from those that they know, like and trust and being credible and having a good reputational (personal) brand is essential in enabling the buyer’s decision making process to choose them over a competitor time and time again.

“Conducting business in the 21^st Century is substantially different than in the last century and brand perception and delivery is becoming all important. Many consultants and SME business owners dismiss this as a trend that affects big business only but to do so can mean the difference between winning and losing a sale. Brand reputation is becoming the ultimate decision maker and to ignore this trend will put your business and earning capacity in peril,” says Germain.

The Networking Essentials teleclass takes placed on 22^nd July 2009 from 10.30am to 11.30am. There are just 20 places on the course, which costs from just £20. For more details or to book your place visit www.networking-strategy.eventbrite.com/ or call 0208 208 288 0512.

Judith Germain is managing director Dynamic Transitions a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent ® and improving leadership performance within organisations. Judith provides strategic and network strategy mentoring for senior executives and business leaders and delivers innovative leadership programmes, leadership consultancy, training, coaching and mentoring to corporate clients. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com or email jude@dynamic-transitions.co.uk

Conducting business in the 21st Century requires a different modus operandi as we increasingly move away from the trading norms of the 20th Century and towards Community Trust Systems™ (CTS). In a society where there are more suppliers than demand, increased scepticism exists and a lack of transparency breeds mistrust – Community Trust Systems™ are becoming a growing necessity for both suppliers and consumers.
Many examples of Community Trust Systems™ already exist to buy and sell products such as Ebay and Amazon and CTS™ for services are now coming into their own (particularly Social Networking sites).

Community Trust Systems™ are where products and services are exchanged on the basis of trust that has been conceived and conferred within a trusted community. Peer review and approval becomes the basis that services are bought and reputation is the determinant for selection.

Designing a networking strategy for Community Trust Systems™

For businesses providing services it is particularly pertinent to be active on social networking sites where businesses are able to integrate into the community, develop a reputation and establish credibility. If your business (and/or yourself) has a good reputation and credibility it is more likely to be trusted by your potential clients, therefore increasing your revenue and sustainability. Community Trust Systems™ require transparency, and the ability of the business to be clear in what they deliver and have an understandable niche. The community members need to be able to trust the networker and be able to advocate their services to others.

A good networking strategy has the following points:

• A holistic strategy designed around business objectives

• Clarity of what the business owner wants to be remembered for – what’s their expertise?

• A clear niche and ability to articulate what the business does

• An offline and online strategy – which networks should you be participating in

• A well structured network

• An understanding of your current reputation and credibility standing in the marketplace

• An ability to leverage time and assess results

When I have worked with clients in designing their networking strategy we have found that their ability to attract advocates and gain results from their networking have exceeded their expectations and has delivered bottom line results. One client saved £7k after one meeting.

The greatest results have come from those that have structured their networking contacts as part of their networking strategy. This allows them to leverage their time and seek a better return on the investment that they have made in the relationships that they have garnered. Referrals are when a contact has made a recommendation that one party meets or does business with another. This is often prompted by a specific request. Advocacy is where an individual, usually unprompted, recommends another with so much detail and influence that the advocated person is not required to sell their services. A good networking strategy enables a business to have many advocates therefore significantly reducing advertising spend.

Structuring your network

To be an effective networker you need to understand who is in your network and what relationship they are to you. For example I have over 10,000 business contacts although I do not know them all individually, I am aware of a vast number of them, refer a great many and advocate a few. Belonging to good social networking sites enables me to manage and maintain conversations with my network, therefore enabling me to extend my reach and help many businesses by making the appropriate connections and providing support where ever possible.

Below is a representation of my network split into three areas:

• Inner Circle – these are my advocates and close contacts. This is a relatively small number

• Middle Circle – these are my main referrers and people that I have conversations with. This number extends into the hundreds.

• Outer Circle – there are people that are aware of my business and what I do personally. Introductions and some referrals take place with these individuals. This number extends into the thousands.

Understanding who is in your network and where – helps to develop how the conversation takes place. ‘Conversation’ in this context means how you interact with them. This includes online messaging, blogs, newsletters, and face to face meetings to name a few.

Structuring your network and how it relates to your networking strategy becomes more pertinent when you consider the following representation of your network.

When designing your networking strategy you need to be aware of how you are remembered by your contacts to ensure that you are not confusing them and they take away the message that you want them to.
For illustrative purposes the second diagram shows how I am generally remembered by my contacts (in terms of business proposition).

My Outer Circle are aware that I specialise with working with Mavericks – the wilfully independent. It is important that when networking your message is clear and easy to remember. This is particularly true online where you may be networking within a Community Trust System.

My Middle Circle understands a number of my business propositions, for example I’m a CEO mentor and Leadership trainer/speaker.

My Inner Circle knows a lot more about me, for example that I come from a strategic senior operations background; I have a solid HR knowledge base and regularly provide expert opinion to the national and trade press.

As people get to know me – I aim to turn my Outer Circle into my Inner Circle etc therefore increasing my reach and ability to have advocates. A more intimate knowledge of their business enables me to help and assist them better also. By understanding my network I am able to engage with them more effectively – perhaps using some automated tools or by regular meetings. This enables me to achieve the other aspects of my networking strategy.

In a saturated and depressed marketplace – where there appears to be many competitors selling the same service or product, having an effective networking strategy enables all businesses’ (but particularly small businesses and consultants) services or products to be advocated, for them to secure more referrals and for the business to cut their marketing costs, increasing their chances of survival.