Here at the Marketing Minute, you may have noticed the suspect absence of a key marketing activity – networking. Why, you ask? Well, like a lot of designers out there, it’s not one of my favorite things. But, none the less I do it.

Most extroverted folks are great at networking events. They’re all bubbly, chatty and such. They make us introverted folks cringe sometimes.

Me, an introvert?

Yup, ‘fraid so gang. I’ve always been a bit shy, even way back in the dark ages when I was but a mere kidlet. Yet, I don’t have any problem with public speaking – the task that rates higher than death on the “Stressful things to do” list. I’m also the guy who starts up the conversation when nobody else will at a club lunch. Go figure.

How did I deal with being a happy introvert in the business world? Easy. I married an extrovert who also was my business partner. She was (and is) probably one of the best sales people I’ve ever met. She can still fire up a comfy conversation with anyone.

Then, I got divorced. Ut oh …

I found myself sitting on the couch in my nifty new apartment one evening after a workday, thinking, “Gee … what do I do with myself now?” I needed to figure out how I was going to get out there and all chummy with new prospects.

Here’s what I did. Odds are, it will work for all you other card-carrying introverts out there, too.

I found the best extrovert I knew and did what he did. I acted “as if.” “As if” I was a chatty type and “as if” I was a public speaker. And guess what? It worked. And, it wasn’t too tough, either.

Simply acting as if you where a dynamic networking mogul can get you over the hump and learn the skills. When you’re in a situation, just think, “What would [insert extrovert du jour] do or say?” Picture your extrovert model person in your seat and just do and say as you believe they would. That might sound like a big lull in the conversation’s looming, but not really. Odds are you’ve seen your model in the same or similar situation and your brain will work pretty quick.

But what if you screw up and say or do something stupid? So what? It’s important to remember that everybody does or says something stupid at times. We’re all human. I usually try to say something funny and call attention to my idiotic faux pas. We all have a good laugh and move on with things. It’s important not to take ourselves too seriously at times.

Here’s a case in point. It wasn’t a major knee-slapper, but it’s stuck in my memory for about 30 years. A good bud of mine, and also a brilliant sales guy, was at the checkout counter at a drugstore with me. He pulled out his wallet and all his dough fell out onto the floor. Without so much as a pregnant pause, he said, “Oh geez, what a vulgar display of wealth.” Everybody around cracked up.

After a while it gets easier and soon you find yourself being comfortable in situations that used to terrify you. You might even find you look forward to them.

If you need some more ammo, read, How To Quick-Start Networking Conversations, by Ilise Benun on RainToday.com (a great site about marketing services, by the way).

So, go forth and network, acting “as if” and release the happy extrovert living inside of you.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get in front of several prospects at once and tell your story? Speaking engagements let you do just that. Granted, public speaking is ahead of death on the “stressful things to do” list, but starting small and working up might be just right for you.

Who wants to listen to you, you ask? There are a lot of places to start you off on your oratory adventures. Business groups like Rotary, Kiwanis, Chambers of Commerce, schools, colleges and universities all look for speakers. Some pay, others don’t. It can be an additional source of revenue, but you’re not in this for the money. You’re in it to reach your prospects and position yourself as an expert.

Toastmasters is a good place to start honing your speaking skills in front of a sympathetic audience. If you’re not familiar with Toastmasters, it’s a club where folks practice their public speaking skills and get feedback and advice on giving talks. You can find information and a local club at www.toastmasters.org. There might even be some prospects in the audience.

Universities are a good next step. Students tend to make eager audiences and instructors do the happy dance when they find a pro who’s willing to share their experience with a class.

After getting your feet wet, try Rotary. Most clubs are always looking for speakers for their meetings. Rotary members are usually business leaders and community movers and shakers. You can find out more about the organization at www.rotary.org.

When you prepare your presentation, focus on your specialty. You can build the presentation with a few case studies, a bit of humor and some professional quality visuals to punctuate various points. But, it’s important that the content of your presentation isn’t a blatant ad for you. It should provide solid, useful information.

Here’s another spot for tip sheets. Use them as hand outs at your talks. For that matter, putting a few tip sheets together can form the foundation of your presentation. If you use Powerpoint, print it out as handouts. Either way, be sure to include your contact info on each page.

It’s important to rehearse your presentation until you it know inside out. With rehearsal comes confidence. When you know your topic well, it’s easy to talk about it and feel confident that you’re sharing valuable information and insights. Information that your audience probably doesn’t know. Try rehearsing in front of a friend or significant other. They tend to not throw tomatoes. After a bit of practice you’ll be ready to take your show on the road. A mirror and tape recorder can do the trick in a pinch.

First cousins to speaking engagements are giving seminars and workshops. These can be free events or you can charge a fee, creating yet another source of revenue. Seminars can be very lucrative if you’ve got a hot topic.

They can also be a huge pain and big money loser if not handled correctly. Promoting it costs money. A location, if you need one, costs money. If you have lunch or even coffee and snacks, that costs money. So, you’ll want some sort of sign up or R.S.V.P. method in place to ensure you have enough attendees to pay for everything and maybe make some coin on the event.

As with speaking engagements, carefully prepare your venue, handouts and visuals. Your seminar or workshop can be held in a meeting room at a hotel or other facility. If you have an office with enough space, it’s wise to begin on your own turf.

Presenting seminars and workshops is an industry in itself and really too broad a topic to detail within this post. An excellent source of information is Marketing and Promoting Your Own Seminars and Workshops, by Fred Gleeck - $14.95, Fast Forward Press.

If presenting a seminar or workshop freaks you out, consider teaching a course at your local adult continuing education facility. You’ll get many of the same benefits of speaking engagements, seminars and workshops, plus you get paid. Maybe teach a class on marketing, branding or advertising and promotion for the small business. You get the idea.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

In April and May of this year (2007), I spoke to professional photographer groups in 6 cities around the US. It was a “Spring Tour” and it kept me from home for about a month…but that’s because I’m crazy and don’t fly. Anyway, I’ve done this before on a slightly smaller scale and I make the occasional one-off trip here and there as well. The groups for whom I speak pay my expenses but I don’t make money off the speaking engagements. Hopefully, the groups do. They are usually creative professional groups and they don’t have large budgets, so if I can help them make a buck or two, fantastic.
Since I’m not making money off the presentations, I am often asked “Why do you do this?” The answer is easy: because it’s great for my business.

Okay, that’s the simple answer, and I’ll explain that further in a bit. There’s a more complicated answer too: I do it because I love to help creatives and lots of creatives need my help and this way I reach them even when I haven’t reached them before with all my writings, blog, podcast, etc. If I can reach, for example, one ignorant lowballer and make him/her rethink what it is s/he’s doing, the travel and the effort has totally been worth it. Or if I can help a creative run her/his business more effectively so that s/he doesn’t have to give up her/his dream and start asking “Do you want fries with that?”–same deal.
This is what I live for and why I do what I do professionally in the first place. I have a (some might say “twisted”) passion for helping creatives. So, going on these tours, speaking to groups, gives me the chance to help more at one time. Sha-wing!

Now, getting back to my original reason, it is very good for my business to speak to groups. There is the obvious part about getting my name out there and being able to promote my own services, sure. But there is much more to it than that surface. In fact, I try to mention my specific service offerings as little as possible in my talks and I certainly don’t talk about my prices or the like either. Usually, the host will say something like “Hire Leslie, she can really help!” and that’s great, but these talks are not about pushing my company or services in that way. This isn’t selling, it’s offering.

Giving presentations to your target markets like this helps to build the consumer recognition of your expertise–you become a thought-leader in your industry in their eyes. In fact, this happens before you even get there–in the promotion of your event, the group will endorse your thought-leadership: you are the expert and you must know what you are talking about since the group went to all the bother of bringing you in.

Of course, you have to back up that preconception with solid information during the presentation. If you’re promoted as an expert and then you get up there and spout gob-bledy-gook, you’re going to take your business down in flames.

This is where offering comes in. You need to give in your presentations. I am open and “give away” a lot of my knowledge at my talks. If people take good notes and really work them, they might never need to hire me (this rarely, if ever happens). I share, I’m hon-est, and I try to answer as many questions as I possibly can during Q&A. I want that audience to not only feel like they got their money’s worth attending the event, I want them to feel intellectually sated. It’s the mental equivalent of having eaten at a great restaurant–you’re full, happy, and you know you’ll want to come back.

And come back they do. Some do right away, signing up for private meetings while I’m in their city. Others, maybe not right away, but many do contact me later to work with me. At the very least, the immediate increase in web traffic, podcast downloads and subscriptions, and requests to be added to my mailing list means that I have reached this potential market and they are listening to my story. In time, many will convert to customers.

Another benefit of the tour is that it gives me the chance to hear what my potential clients really think, need, want, fear, etc., in different places. I can see what concerns really are top-of-mind and see how I can tailor my offerings to help provide solutions to those concerns. That data is fantastic! For example, photographers in Austin complain about lowballers just as much as Boston photographers, but Boston photographers aren’t as open with each other as the Austin ones. If I can find a way to help the Boston photographers improve intra-industry communications, that will help their businesses.

Speaking to groups, whether one-offs or making a big tour, is a good way to improve your own business. Think about how helpful this might be for your business:

You’re a designer who services architects, mostly. They are often cheap and/or difficult clients. You meet with the local AIA and arrange to present a lunch event where you’ll talk about how architects can “get the most out of working with a designer.” In the presentation you subtly teach them how to better work with you, explain the real costs and talk about how clients get better results when they let the designer do her/his job, etc.

What do you think the results will be? I bet you’ll learn more about your (potential) clients, get the chance to present your best (honest!) self, help others, promote your thought-leadership in your industry, and meet some great people to boot. All of which will result in increased sales.

©2007 Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua | Creative/Marketing Consultant & Coach
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