Remember that we don’t buy a product. We buy the solution to a problem or a value that your service brings to us. It’s not enough to say you have a great product or service. You have to tie that back to us and what’s in it for us. That’s where your value statement or unique selling proposition comes in.

By the way, saying your product is #1 in your industry doesn’t work. I wrote a post several months on why that is. I suggest you go back and review that post now. I’ll wait for you to come back.

Back now? Good. Now what can you say that will have meaning to your prospects? Go back to your client stories. You identified why your clients come to you and what solution you can offer. Look at those solutions and see if there is a way to quantify them.

Using me as an example again. Clients come to me because they are uncertain how to make social media work for them. I met with a prospect yesterday who had worked hard to learn the basics of Twitter. It took her a year to read about and learn best practices and build a basic following. I can get my clients up and running, with specific tactics for content and attracting followers, in about 3 months. So I can say I cut the learning curve in social media by more than in half. Or I can say that I can get someone up and running and seeing results with social media in 3 months instead of a year or more. There’s lots of ways I can state my value statement.

If someone is worried about getting into social media, that’s going to be a good value statement and will address their pain. If I’m talking to someone who is experienced in social media, it won’t be a value to them, but that’s okay. That company isn’t a good prospect for me. However, if they took longer than 3 months to get results, it might stick with them as a reason to refer me.

See how it works? Your value statement should be short. A sentence or two and customizable for your audience. Does it take work? Sure. But it’s worth it. Talking about your value is a lot more fun and effective than listing your services. And it makes you a lot more referrable.

Sound too hard? Give me a call, and I’ll help you out with it. Remember. I can get you results faster than if you do it yourself. Or, if you are in the DC area, attend my Netmasters meeting this month where we are going to go in-depth on this topic.

Why is that? Because they looked at networking from the wrong direction. It’s not just meeting people. It’s meeting the right people and communicating the right value statements.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about this month. We’re going to cover all the elements of creating a good networking action plan. And we’re doing it while you’ve still got three months left to meet your goals!

Here’s what you need to be thinking about before you come:

1. What pain points bring clients to you?

2. How do you relieve their pain? (otherwise known as your value proposition)

3. What are the other complementary (but not competing) businesses that are serving your ideal clients?

4. Where do those businesses network?

5. How can you add value to those businesses to motivate them to refer you?

6. How can you educate them to refer you?

It’s going to be good. Don’t miss the discussion!

Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010
Time: 6-8 PM
Location: Century 21 New Millennium Building, 5990 Kingstowne Towne Center, Alexandria, VA 22315 (next to Safeway)
Cost: $15

RSVP to juli@1to1discovery.com by September 21.

Nope, pain is not a very nice word, but if you are in sales, you are in the business of finding and relieving pain. By “sales” I am referring to you job seekers as well. You are selling yourself, and your skills are the “product” you have to relieve pain in an organization. So don’t think these posts won’t apply to you.

What do I mean by “pain” as it relates to networking and sales? Almost every purchase you make is (directly or indirectly) aimed at satisfying a need. Generally we recognize a need when we feel pain. I’m using “pain” very broadly here to describe what we feel when we’re dissatisfied with our current situation in some way. A few examples:

1. I recently bought a new iPhone because upgrading the OS on my old phone made it very slow. I was frustrated by the sluggish performance, and that was affecting my overall productivity. That was a a form of pain.

2. We buy sheets for our beds because our skin is a lot more comfortable if we’re not lying directly on the mattress.

3. People pay for my coaching because they don’t know or understand networking and social media. Lack of knowledge is often painful.

What about entertainment? Do we go to a movie or buy a book because of an unmet need? Ask a parent of an overactive 5-year old! The latest Disney film can buy that parent 90 minutes of relative peace. Yep, that’s pain relief!

If you’re uncomfortable with the word “pain,” and some are, then think of it in terms of unmet need. The basic question you need to ask yourself is what motivates a prospect to talk to you.

I’m not talking about “what” you sell. People don’t buy financial planning. They buy peace of mind, knowing that they will be able to retire and live in comfort instead of on the street. Too many people in sales focus on what they sell and not the intrinsic value of their product or service.

A good way to determine the need you meet is to think of some client stories. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Why did the client come to me?
2. What did I offer the client?
3. What was the outcome?

I’ll use myself as an example. I recently worked with a small non-profit on their social media strategy. They came to me because they knew their target community was using social media, and they’d been told they needed to as well. They didn’t know which channels would be the right ones to attract and communicate with their target audience.

I worked with them to identify the right channels, craft an overall message strategy and decide how to manage their time so social media didn’t overwhelm them.

After about six weeks, they were getting inquiries from the right people and starting to build some partnership relationships through Twitter.

What was the pain? Lack of knowledge and fear of making the wrong decision. What did I provide? Knowledge and a sound strategy.

See how it works? Answer the questions above for your own business. Tomorrow we’re going to delve further into how you relieve pain and turn that into a value statement, which is going to be the key to communicating about your business.

Why is that backwards? Isn’t networking about meeting new people and building relationships with them? Of course it is, but, like anything else in business, you need to network with a plan and purpose. Over the next few posts, I’m going to break networking planning down into discrete steps. Along the way, we’re going to talk about some concepts that will make you better at selling your product or service. How’s that for a two-fer?

I’ve said I don’t recommend starting with the “meeting people” part. So where do I think you need to start? Here’s the progression I recommend:

1. What pain points bring clients to you?

2. How do you relieve their pain? (otherwise known as your value proposition)

3. What are the other complementary (but not competing) businesses that are serving your ideal clients?

4. Where do those businesses network?

5. How can you add value to those businesses to motivate them to refer you?

6. How can you educate them to refer you?

If you can answer those six questions, you’ll have an excellent outline for a strategic networking marketing plan. You’ll be able to evaluate networking venues based on whether they are attracting either your target market or your strategic partners. You’ll have a message and value statement to help you get referrals and close clients. And finally, you and your strategic partners will know exactly how to help each other, which will lead to a stronger relationship. And more referrals!

Tomorrow we’ll start with pain points.

It uses the basic principle of “Six Degrees of Separation.” Of course, if you are a good networker, you seldom need as many as six steps to get to anyone. Envision a target with an “A” in the center. Around the “A” is another circle, labeled “B.” And around the “B” circle is a final circle, labeled “C.”

Looks kind of like a target, doesn't it?

These circles represent your contacts, both the ones you already know and the ones you want to know.

Look at your current contacts as your “C” contacts. These are the people who know, trust and are willing to make introductions on your behalf.

Then decide on the specific person (or persons) you want to meet: an ideal client, a perfect referral source, or the hiring manager at the company where you most want to work. These are your “A” contacts. Your goal is to leverage your C contacts to get introductions to your A contacts.

More than likely, you will need some intermediaries, and those are “B” contacts. B contacts are people who can introduce you to your A contacts. In some cases a C might also be an B, but often not. So you look at your C contacts to determine which are most likely to get you a step closer to A.

If you use LinkedIn or a similar social networking site, you have probably done this without thinking about it in these terms. On LinkedIn, there are people who are one, two or three steps away from you. If you do a search and want an introduction to someone who is three steps away from you, you send a request for an introduction to your first level contact. If your contact trusts you enough to send it on, it gets forwarded to the second level contact. And hopefully that person sends it on to the person you really wanted to meet. LinkedIn was, in part, designed around this very A-B-C concept.

The same approach works in face to face networking. Here’s an example. Let’s say during the last election cycle, I had wanted to meet Hillary Clinton. Who do I know who might have gotten me a step closer to her? Well, I know the owner of a heating and air conditioner company who has done work for a former senator in my state. That former senator might have been able to introduce me to Ms. Clinton. So I would have called my contact and let him know whom I needed to meet and why. If I have a good relationship with him (and I do), he should have been willing to introduce me to the former senator. And if that meeting went well, the senator might have been able to introduce me to Ms. Clinton directly, or might have introduced me to another B contact who could. And so it goes. Within two or three meetings, I could have had a direct line to a presidential candidate.

The key is knowing exactly who you want to meet and knowing your current contacts well enough to step your way to those ideal contacts. The last ingredient is trust. Without a certain level of trust, your contacts aren’t going to be willing to pass on your requests for introductions.

The system really does work. I was teaching a seminar on this topic, and I asked the participants to raise their hands if they had a specific person they wanted to meet. I chose a participant at random and told her that the people in this room were, for the moment, her C contacts. I asked who she wanted to meet. She said she wanted to meet a decision-maker at Marriott corporation. I turned to the room and asked if anyone could be her “B.” Several people raised their hands. Totally random group of people, and the system still worked.

It sounds basic, but networking really can be that simple. So who is your “A” contact? Maybe we know the ideal “B” contact to get you there.

If you are active in your networking, you are probably meeting a lot of people. And if you are meeting good people, they are also meeting a lot of people.

So you need to give us some context when you follow up with us.

I recently received an email that I almost deleted as spam. It thanked me for taking time meeting with this person and had a brochure as an attachment. I didn’t remember meeting with this person, and the brochure was aimed at someone in an industry with little relevance to me.

I decided to email back and ask for context. Good thing I did, because it turned out that he had been a participant at a workshop I’d been invited to speak at, and he might want to use my services in the future.

From spam to prospect just like that.

He could have saved much confusion by including where we’d met in the initial email. I still might not have remembered him (even after he gave me context, I don’t remember which audience member he’d been),but at least I wouldn’t have initially assumed the email was spam.

It doesn’t take much time to add where you met someone and, perhaps, briefly what you might have discussed. It’s good manners, gives us context and makes us more likely to return your email, phone call, or tweet.

But they get a reaction! (A good one.) I’ve had people compliment me on my branding (shirts, business cards, website). Someone even said she wanted to meet with me because over my overall brand image. At networking events, people assume I’m part of a larger organization. And so on.

In business, a lot is based on first impression. If a shirt or a more professional business card can help that first impression, then by all means invest in them.

As I’m proving, that investment doesn’t have to be a lot of money! Think I’ll be getting some long-sleeved shirts for fall and winter? You bet!

You’ll need to systematically educate them. Which isn’t a bad thing. It will force you to hone your message and clearly define who is a good referral. Which might make you better at selling your product or service. Not bad, eh?

I’ve written a lot of article on elevator speeches, and it might be a good idea to review them. Just search on “elevator speech” on my blog home page.

Stories are going to be key to educating your audience. You’re going to need to look at your client list and come up with your best stories. Here’s what you’re looking for:

Problem
Solution
Outcome

If you can come up with three or four good examples that fit that format, you’re well on the way. Of course, you’ll work those stories into your elevator speech, but you’re going to need to use them in one on one meetings as well.

I’d suggest you mention in your meeting that your business can be tough to refer. Yes, there’s a danger in putting that idea into someone’s head, but I think it’s offset by the fact that they are probably already thinking, “I have no idea how to refer you.” Address what they are already thinking, and you’ve won half the battle.

Then pull out your stories. Go through the two that are most likely to be relevant to the person with whom you are meeting. Walk through why those clients needed you and how you were able to help.

Tie those stories to possible industries the other person might be familiar with. Give triggers. Ask the person to look or listen for certain cues. Then give them some specific ways they could start a conversation around your business.

Is that a lot of work? Yes, but it will be worth it. Of course, you need to give the other person equal time and attention. The more you are willing and able to refer others, the more likely they are to refer you.

Anyone have a particularly difficult business to refer? Tell us about it in the comments, and let’s see if we can’t help you out.

I was meeting with someone last week who was thinking about joining a networking group, and she asked my advice. I knew the group well, and I said, “I don’t think it’s going to work for you. The people in that group aren’t going to need your services, and I think you’ll be frustrated.”

She very correctly called me on my statement and said, “But I thought the point was to work through them to their referrals, not make them clients.”

Of course I agree with her, but that wasn’t quite my point. As you network, you need to know your audience and your product or service. Some groups are made up of more savvy networkers than others. This group isn’t one of the savvy ones.

Some people can envision how they would refer someone, even if the service is something they will never use. For example, I personally have no use for someone who does corporate mediation. But I know the kinds of people who would need that service, and I can refer it.

Some people can’t make that leap. They are generally the smaller business owners who are new to the concept of business by referral. When they are still trying to get their message right to generate referrals and keep in mind easy to refer businesses, they aren’t quite able to get their heads around more complicated to refer businesses.

You need to keep this in mind when joining a networking group. Is your business something the members of the group will understand and use, even if they don’t use you? If so, you’ll have an easy time educating them on how to refer you. If not, you’ll have a bigger challenge.

Am I saying you shouldn’t join such a group? No, I’m just warning you that you’ll have to work harder than say, someone who sells gift baskets. Everyone can see how to refer that business. Everyone may not instantly see how to refer you.

That’s the “bad news.” The good news is that tomorrow I’m going to write about how you can educate anyone about how to refer your business, even if you fall into the “hard to refer” category.

Someone’s probably already told you that there is a conversation going on about your brand. You can ignore the conversation and hope it goes well, or you can listen and join in. It’s your choice, but obviously I believe that joining the conversation is the better option.

Where should you monitor? It depends on the size of your brand. If you are a national/international brand, you need specialized tools to gather all the mentions of your brand in one place. I’m test-driving Trakur right now. It’s one tool, and there are certainly others.

If you are smaller, look at where your audience tends to hang out and go there.

I still recommend accounts on most of the major social media platforms because you’ll want to be able to respond when people talk about you. Remember to respond to both the good and the bad. We like to get feedback when we compliment as much as we like to hear from you when we criticize.

How will you spend your time? Listening, mostly. As you listen, analyze and look for patterns. Does one demographic talk about you the most? Is it good or bad? You might want to plan a campaign to address them specifically.

As you listen and analyze, interact with your audience. The more accessible you are, the more you’ll hear, and that’s good, even if you hear the bad stuff. If you are accessible, the bad stuff won’t be as bad. When people feel they are being heard, they are much softer in their criticism and more likely to thank you for addressing concerns.

How do you get business from this role? That’s easy. If you have the reputation of responding promptly, people will naturally come to you. Remember that we like to do business with companies we know, like and trust. A good monitoring program will feed all three of those.

That’s the end of this series. I hope it’s made you think of your role in social media and how you can make it work for you more effectively.

I’ll add to it when I run across new roles. Things are changing so rapidly that I’m sure it won’t be long before I see some new ones emerging.