Maverick Mastery®

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

Generation Y employees must be granted access to social media tools like Twitter and Facebook in the workplace, as developing work-based relationships online will increase customer confidence, says leadership expert Judith Germain.

The publication of a survey by BT Business reveals that thousands of employees are worried that they will lose clients if they do not get better at using Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with them. Dynamic Transitions’ MD Judith Germain is warning companies to reconsider their restriction policies on the use of social networking sites for business use, or risk losing valuable market share to competitors.

Germain says:

“Companies need to recognise the ease with which these tools can be used to improve customer relationships and to engage with them. Generation Y employees have highly advanced online communication skills developed over years of using social media as part of their daily lives. They have the ability to unlock the potential of social media for the benefit of the business, but only if managers take the lead, set the guidelines, and show them how to harness this talent most effectively.”

“Now more than ever, companies need to devise a social media marketing strategy that encompasses the needs of the employees and the needs of the business. It should be their number one priority as it is only by making a determined move into the 21st century, rethinking the status quo and actively integrating the customer and employee journey, that substantial leaps forward for the business can be made.”

The social media buck should not just be passed to HR says Germain, who is also Vice-President of the BlackStar Life Members Community on popular business networking site Ecademy. “It is not just the HR department’s responsibility to manage social media policies. Marketing, HR and Ops need to find a way of working together to devise an effective social media strategy that can work for the entire business. “

Judith Germain is founder and principle consultant of Dynamic Transitions Ltd, a leadership company specialising in managing Troublesome Talent® and improving leadership performance in companies. For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com or telephone +44 (0) 208 288 0512.

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.

Generation X employees need to educate unruly generation Y employees on the appropriateness of using social networking sites in light of revelations that employees at Waitrose and Tesco have been publicly posting insulting comments about their customers on social networking site Facebook, says Talent Management specialist Judith Germain.

As Waitrose becomes the latest high street chain to fall victim to the widespread visibility of their disgruntled employees via their unreserved comments on Facebook. Dynamic Transitions MD Judith Germain believes that Generation Y employees aren’t intentionally trying to tarnish the brand’s reputation, but simply don’t realise the consequences of their actions online, which for many, is an integral part of their day to day lives.

“Whilst Generation X and Baby Boomers know instinctively that conversations in public forums that involve their employers is a bad idea, Generation Y do not have that belief and struggle to understand the effect on their employer’s brand and the consequences that their actions may bring to their careers”, explains Germain, who specialises in managing Troublesome Talent® in the workplace.

Germain believes that employers must act now by educating their Generation Y employees on how to behave appropriately online and by providing ‘safe havens’ for them to express their views and vent frustrations in a controlled environment and away from the public eye, if they want to maintain staff loyalty and customer satisfaction during a particularly difficult trading period.

“Organisations should consider providing a place internally where staff can have ‘conversations’ with each other in a social networking environment which is away from public scrutiny, however, these kind of solutions must be thought through carefully in terms of how they are implemented and how much intervention or moderation they want to provide. The legal implications of getting it wrong can be quite adverse to a business, although getting it right can bring radical results”, adds Germain.

Dynamic Transitions is a leadership company specialising in managing Troublesome Talent®. You can download their free whitepaper ‘Harnessing Maverick Talents’ at www.developing-leadership.com/whitepapers.html For further information or to find out more about Dynamic Transitions visit www.developing-leadership.com or telephone +44 (0) 208 288 0512.