Help Others to Help You
I was in Rhode Island last Friday giving a workshop on Promoting Your Brand to Rhode Island Networking to Open Doors to Jobs. I arrived early and was, therefore, able to sit in on the facilitated networking exercise at one table. All of the people at the table were highly qualified and competent individuals who held director or executive level positions before being laid off.
The facilitator at the table asked each person to give a little information about their background, their strengths and expertise, and what kind of position they were seeking. I was impressed how well each person articulated their strengths and what types of companies and jobs they were targeting for employment. Everyone around the table responded enthusiastically with potential contacts and leads for their colleagues.
We worked our way around the table to one woman who told the group that she was an architect and was now in limbo and trying to decide what she wanted to do going forward. She told the group that at this time she was looking for any type of job. Interestingly enough, the group who had previously been so helpful to others, now remained quiet. They simply did not know how to respond.
The lesson from this is: People really want to help. In fact, most people are eager to assist you in getting a new job or getting clients, but YOU need to give them enough information so that they CAN help. When we are vague and unclear about what we want ourselves, we cannot expect others to come up with the answers for us.
If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, the more specific you can be about who is your target audience, the easier it is for people to refer business.
If you are looking for new employment, be clear about what type of company you want to work for and what kind of position you are seeking.
People sincerely want to help. Give them the opportunity to be helpful.
What Is Your Attention Grabber?
I was in Orlando this past week with some colleagues training a medical device sales force on “purposeful communication”. “Purposeful Communication” is communication that has a goal or desired outcome and when applied to sales presentations, the objective is to create a sales presentation that is well organized around a desired outcome with your target audience.
Selling to a large or small group of potential decision makers has many similarities to promoting yourself and your business to prospective clients. One similarity is in the way you open a presentation. The opening of a sales presentation or “attention grabber” is much like the way you start your elevator pitch or promotional message.
Attention grabbers are just that. They are designed to get the attention of the audience from the start so that they will engage and listen to your message.
How effective is your attention grabber?
Here are some different suggestions on how to open your pitch to grab attention from the listeners.
- Open your pitch with a statement or question that creates some kind of an emotional bond. A good way to create an emotional bond might be to say, “Imagine yourself….. or how would it feel if….”. You can move your listener to a state of mind or emotion where they will connect with their need for your product or services.
- Ask a poignant question that demonstrates that you get their problem or challenges. “Have you ever experienced….? What do you do when….? etc.
- Share a story about yourself and your journey that connects with your business in some way. Maybe you experienced similar issues, overcame those issues and now are passionate about helping other people.
- Make a statement that has an unexpected ending or is surprising in some way.
- Use a quote or song title or lyric that people can easily identify with and fits well into your message.
Starting your promotional pitch with your name and company name is NOT a great attention grabber. You need to give people a reason to remember you before you give them this information.
Draw them in first with something that gets their attention and then talk about your business and the benefit your product or service will provide to them. NOW, they will remember your name and company!
Create a Great Elevator Pitch
Have you ever been to a networking event where everyone needs to stand up and introduce themselves? I don’t know about you, but after about 3-4 people stand up and recite their elevator pitches, I can’t remember who does what. Very few of them capture my attention. Even less of them are memorable. They all sound alike because everyone is using the same approach, the same boring approach.
How then can you distinguish yourself? How can you stand out in the crowd?
We all want to sound professional, but in our quest to be professional, our pitches often fall flat. The goal of a good pitch is to attract clients and be memorable. So how do you create a great message; one that is effective and “sticky”?
I find that most of the pitches I hear do not have the “sticky” factor. And many of the pitches are very difficult to deliver. They are too technical or too wordy and, therefore, lose the audience. Some of the pitches are too vague. Sometimes we use jargon that no one understands in an effort to sound professional. The end result is that people may think we’re smart, but they have no idea what are business is.
Here are some tips on how to create a great elevator pitch:
- Your message should be authentic. Don’t use a lot of jargon or professional language that is off putting. You won’t connect with people this way.
- Your message should be personal. Tell your story. People love stories and they remember them.
- Put energy and passion into your message. Let people know that you love what you do. Don’t you want to work with people who love what they do?
- Make an emotional connection with you message. Identify the need and pain of your target audience so that people can easily identify with what you provide and they will remember you.
- Make your message easy to deliver, conversational. Don’t write a speech that you need to memorize and recite. It doesn’t sound authentic. It’s boring.
- Stimulate curiosity. Give a teaser or enough information so that they want to learn more about you.
- It might be appropriate to make it light and fun. Try using cliches, song titles or quotes to begin your pitch and get people’s attention.
Promotional messages take time to create. Start big, not small. Brainstorm and write down all your ideas about how to present yourself and THEN review your notes and pull out sound bytes to craft a great message.
For more tips on how to create a great elevator pitch, listen to my Women Mean Business show, Tune Up Your Pitch. On the show, I coach 3 women entrepreneurs through a process to tune up their pitch!
www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=43836
Are You in Career Quicksand?
Does this describe you?
- Desperately trying to keep your job or business from swallowing you up?
- Totally focused on completing all your daily tasks but never getting through your to do list?
- Working nights and weekends to catch up?
- Stressed? Exhausted?
- Do you find the more you struggle to keep on top of things, the more you sink into the abyss?
I call this career quicksand. Why? Because when you are in this situation with your business or career, you are stuck and I mean really stuck! The consequences of this are that you are not in the position or frame of mind to move your business or career forward. When you are in career quicksand, you cannot think clearly or objectively. As long as you are totally focused on daily tasks, you do not have the time or energy to be creative. All your energy is expended on daily survival.
What would it take for you to extricate yourself from this trap and begin to think more strategically?
Here are some tips to pull yourself out of the quicksand:
- At least once a day, take some time to do something totally different from work; anything that will clear you mind. Ideally, scheduling even a few short breaks (10 minutes) during the day helps to keep up your energy and stimulate your creativity.
- Work with a coach or mentor. This partnership can give you a new perspective on your business and career. The potential to see things more objectively offers a great opportunity to get “unstuck”.
- Start an Affinity Group at work. Gather a group of like-minded women together on a regular basis to discuss and brainstorm on work place challenges and opportunities.
- Schedule regular networking meetings (lunch, dinner, coffee) with peers outside of your own company. It’s amazing what wisdom is available from other business owners or women in similar corporate positions.
- Keep your mind open to new approaches through a variety of resources. There are many insightful and valuable books on business management and leadership. (Let me know if you would like some suggestions). There are also many worthwhile online resources.
The first step to getting “unstuck” is to realize that you ARE stuck and that the consequences of this are detrimental to the growth of your business and career. You simply can’t move forward if all of your energy is focused on daily tasks and survival.
Look for ways to pull yourself out of the quicksand and think strategically about where you want to go and how best to get there.
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Also, check out my new January teleclasses:
Promote Yourself to Success (3 one hour sessions). $99. Class limited to 6
Learn how to create an effective and memorable message and practice with your peers!
for more information and registration:
http://womenssuccesscoaching.com/services/group-coaching/
Are Professional Women’s Networks Passe?
What do you accomplish when you put a group of professional women together in a room? a valid question and now a controversial topic of discussion.
Professional women’s networks have recently come under fire for perpetuating the ideology that women need to be “fixed” in order to be successful in the workplace. These professional groups were for the most part originally formed for women to network and listen to senior women for mentorship and role modelling.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, co-author of Why Women Mean Business”, was recently quoted as saying, “We have to stop bringing groups of women together to talk about what we know is going wrong.” “We have to convince our companies to stop fixing women.”
Separating women for personal development does not seem to fit with the current line of thinking that “women’s” issues are now business issues and that advancing women’s leadership is of great benefit to an organization. If that is so, what is the best approach for supporting women’s leadership initiatives?
Many women believe that the support from a women’s network is vital to their success, but maybe the overall purpose of these groups is more about sharing and strategizing to change the overall company culture than it is to “fix” women.
Professional women’s groups offer wonderful opportunities for collaboration and support from other women. This remains important. However, in order to shift company cultures, perhaps these networks should also collaborate with mixed gender groups both internally and externaly.
Women’s groups can take the lead on shifting the attitudes and beliefs of companies by shifting their own agenda from how difficult it is to be a woman to creating better opportunities for talent management.
What are your thoughts?
What’s Your Story?
We all have unique stories to tell about our careers and our businesses. I did a presentation last week on self-promotion in Boston to the Downtown Women’s Club and heard many great stories from the attendees and I was reminded again how truly wonderful all our stories are. Each story reveals something personal about us.
What is the story behind starting our business? Where did the idea come from? Why did we choose to start this particular business?
What’s been our personal journey thus far? How have we taken our passion and turned it into a business?
What attracted us to a particular company and career?
When we incorporate stories into our promotional message, it creates a message that attracts listeners. People love stories so why don’t we tell them? Why do we hesitate tobe personal in our approach to self-promotion? Often we get so hung up on presenting a “professional” persona that we end up with a promotional pitch that falls flat.
If, in fact, the goal of a promotional pitch is to attract interest and be memorable, it only makes sense that we should infuse more of our personality and passion into the message.
What is your unique story and how might you include some of that story in your conversations about your business and career?
Telling your story can make a huge difference in a job interview. It’s certainly an improvement over just reciting your resume. Think of an appropriate story about your accomplishments that will set you apart from the other applicants.
At a networking event, how do you answer the question, “What do you do”? Keep the conversation lively by revealing something personal (o.k. maybe not too personal) about how and why you chose to start your business, about your passion for what you do. People will remember you as they also tune out everyone else’s boring elevator pitches.
In our quest to be professional, we create messages that are dull and forgettable.
Step out of the box and say something that will set you apart.
Isn’t that the goal after all? To have a message that people remember?
I’m offering a teleclass in November on “Promote Yourself to Success”. This class will be 3 consecutive Wednesday evenings 7-8 pm EDT starting November 4th. Three one hour sessions $99. Class limited to six.
Participants will:
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create a new promotional message
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develop an action plan for self-promotion
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practice delivering their message
http://womenssuccesscoaching.com/november-teleclass-workshop-registration/
Identify Your Web of Influence
Years ago, I went through a training program on customer retention that emphasized the importance of identifying a web of influence within a client account. The web of influence not only included the main contact or champion, but other individuals within the company that could “influence” your success. Having more than one contact is of the utmost importance to maintain stability and ongoing communication to retain the account and hopefully expand the current business. After all, what if your main contact leaves the company? Without more influential contacts in that organization, you are very vulnerable.
Of course, the same web of influence approach is vital for client acquisition as well. Early in any sales activity with prospects, identifying the key players and communicating consistently with all these individuals broadens your scope of influence and enhances your chances of landing the account.
Now let’s transition to the corporate world and the topic of career advancement. Identifying your own web of influence at work is key to your own success. What are your career goals? Who a re the major players in your organization that you need to be in front of consistently to advance your career?
Identify those key players and create your own personal sales plan for promoting yourself. In your plan, include action items that will create credibility and visibility with these individuals.
Carefully craft your message and practice the delivery of your message. What information do you want to communicate? How often? Like any other sales activity, your personal sales plan requires consistency and follow up.
Continue to look for opportunities to add to this internal network through special committees or projects.
The strength of your web of influence is determined by the individuals you select, how often your communicate, and the content of your message. Maintaining this web of influence is key to advancing your career.
Karmen Gardner, Realtor, Keller Williams Realty
Karmen is a licensed Realtor who provides exceptional service for her clients. She has recently become certified in affordable housing. Her experience in business management and customer relations has taught her that building a relationship with her clients is the key to win-win deals and positive results.
Her website: http://karmengardner.yourkwagent.com
Karmen
Create Visibility to Market Your Personal Brand
Visibility is the key component to any successful marketing campaign. There is no limit to the ways that you can market yourself. Visibility is contagious and once you get started it takes off. The biggest challenge is to get started.
Be aware that everything you do and everything you don’t do or choose not to do is all part of your personal brand. It all communicates your value and character. The way you answer your phone is part of your brand message. Your voice message, the way you respond to emails are all part of your brand so it’s important to be conscious of the way you are communicating to people.
Here are some tips on how to create visibility for yourself to enhance your profile at work:
- Sign up for a special project or committee that has visibility within your company which will introduce you to new colleagues and showcase your skills or teach you new skills.
- Become a SME (subject matter expert). Teach at a community college or an adult education course.
- Start a blog on the subject. Create buzz about you and your brand.
- Write a contributing article/column for your local newspaper or alumni magazine. You will have a track record of your work.
- Sign up to speak at a conference. Volunteer for a panel discussion.
- Be strategic about social media networking sites. Choose the sites that best suit your needs to promote your brand and carefully craft your promotional message and profile online.
- Nurture your network. The best way to market your brand is word of mouth marketing. Find conscious ways to communicate your message to your contacts. What they say about your contributes to the value of your brand.
Marketing your brand requires you to act selfishly to promote yourself and to grow yourself. This is a win-win situation for you and your company. Everything you do to promote your personal brand and grow professionally is gravy for them. When you are learning, growing, building relationships,and delivering great results, it’s good for you and good for the company where you work.
Want to be an Internet Radio Show host? Check out Coach Deb Bailey’s teleclass next Wednesday April 22nd.
“Boost Your Marketing and Visibility with Internet Radio”
Learn the strategies for hosting your own internet radio show for maximum visibility and revenue
Hosted by Coach Deb Bailey, host of “Women Entrepreneurs-The Secrets of Success” internet radio show
Where: on the phone
Date: Wed. April 22
Time: 08:00 PM to 09:00 PM eastern
Cost: $10
Sign up: http://www.dbaileycoach.com/teleclass_radioshow.html
Teleclass will include:
- Where to promote your shows and how to get on iTunes
- How to find high-profile guests
- What platforms to use to host your show
- How to make your show come across as a “professional” broadcast
- What business models will generate revenue from your show
