If you want my business, I’m going to have to get to know you.  It’s important that I like you (or at least that I don’t dislike you), and I absolutely have to be able to trust you.  That feeling of Know, Like and Trust isn’t going to come from a cold call, it’s not going to come from a marketing brochure and it’s not going to come from you just handing me your business card at a networking meeting.

It turns out that Diana Ross had it right a long time ago:

“You can’t hurry love, No you just have to wait.  She said love don’t come easy – it’s a game of give and take.

You can’t hurry love, No, you just have to wait.  You got to trust, give it time
No matter how long it takes”

But if you look at how most people approach networking, it’s the exact opposite.  Quick handshake, impersonal small talk and a quick rundown of what you do.  A rush relationship just isn’t going to cut it. 

Effective networking isn’t about just showing up and it isn’t about the number of cards you can collect (or hand out).  You’re not going to connect with everyone at an event – and if you don’t take things slow, you’re not going to connect with anyone (at least not in a positive way).

You have to think big picture!  The big goal is to develop customers and referral partners who love you…or at least love doing business with you.  Getting them to fall in love takes time and effort and often that starts with meeting someone at a networking event.  However if you try to rush through that first meeting, if you skip the getting to know you phase – all you’re going to do is annoy and alienate the people around you.

Most successful business owners would agree that some form of networking is critical to their business, which is why it’s surprising that it’s continually done so poorly!

Remember…it’s a game of give and take.  At a networking event, you are simply starting the process of building a relationship with a small number of the right people.  Really connecting with 1 person who can actually help your business is a lot better than exchanging business cards with 20 other people.  Spend your time finding the right person or two (no more than 3 or 4) at an event and start building a genuine relationship.

You’ll be focusing on the other person.  Get them to talk.  Ask great open-ended questions that they’ll be excited to answer.  Be interested in what they have to say.  Ask them what they need…not in terms of your products or services, but in terms of their success…and then try to help give it to them.  In short…you’re working to become their friend.

If it’s a promising contact, then set up a follow-up meeting, connect with them on LinkedIn.  Keep looking for ways to help them.  Make a great introduction for them.  Point them towards a strong resource – do something to positively start building a relationship.  Make sure you’re following all 10 Steps of Effective Networking (especially the follow-up)

It can be  a lot of work and it’s an ongoing effort but the payoff of building a close network of great resources who will drive referrals to your business is worth it.  Imagine getting 50% or even 80% of the business you need from referrals!  It all starts with taking your time (not hurrying) and finding ways for the right people to start knowing, liking and trusting you.

What are you doing to help people get to know you?  Why would they like you?  Am I way off base here?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by orangeacid

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Life’s too short to…

I’m sure you’ve heard that hundreds of times – maybe a bumper sticker or quick comment about the quality (or lack of quality) of a beverage.  “Life’s too short to drink bad beer!”.

If you think about it, it’s a pretty deep thought (maybe not Jack Handey deep, but thought provoking).  I was meeting with someone last week and they had an interesting business related take on it:

Life’s too short to work with people you don’t like.

What a great (and powerful) way to point out the values that are really important to you.  Imagine a small but pointed list of rules that you followed because life is too short not to follow them.  So with that in find, I brainstormed a potential list for you to start with – some of them are mine, some of them came when I did a finish the sentence exercise with a couple of my Peer Group Advisory Boards – let me know what I missed:

Life is too short to…

get stuck in an 8 to 5 job.

(especially one that you don’t enjoy).

worry all the time.

Stop stressing, it’s not like you’re saving lives (please disregard if you are in fact saving lives…).

worry about what other people think.

Live your life on your terms of success – not someone else’s (easier said than done).

not to do what you love / what you’re passionate about.

I don’t really buy into the ‘do what you love and the money will follow’ idea but I do buy into the idea that you will be exponentially better at doing something you enjoy as opposed to something you feel like you have to do.

grow up!

As my client explained ‘Never take your life too seriously – it’s not like any of us is getting out of this alive!’. 

not take risks!

This one is especially appropriate for business owners – it’s all about taking risks, without risk you’re not going to succeed, and if you’re not going to put it out there, you might as well not even try.

hang out with people who don’t challenge and encourage you.

There’s a saying that you’re only as good as the people you spend the most time with.  I’ve seen clear evidence that successful people hang out with other successful people – are your acquaintances bringing you up or down?

work with people you don’t like.

Michael Port writes about a Red Velvet Rope Policy (you have to wait through the ad) in his book ‘Book Yourself Solid’  – basically how ineffective it is to work with people you don’t fit with (and it’s not much fun).

not take vacations.

If you’re a business owner who hasn’t taken a real vacation in at least a year, something is wrong (and we should talk).  I know you’re busy, but if you can’t carve out a week of time to really get away, you’re on the downward slide to closing up shop whether you know it or not.

not have some fun.

Lighten up Francis.  A sense of humor and a willingness to smile will go a very, very long way towards building up fans of your business and employees who like working with you.

What’s your rule?

There’s not really a right answer on this, but I’d love to hear if you’ve got a rule to live by (or if you’d like to have a rule to live by but haven’t been willing to really enforce it yet).  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Seth Godin makes me nervous – but for all the right reasons.

Godin published ‘Purple Cow – Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable’ in 2002 and he explains the title in the first chapter by talking about a trip his family made to France where they were amazed at the pastoral countryside with lots of cows:

“Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring.  They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they’re still boring.

A Purple Cow, though.  Now that would be interesting!” – Seth Godin Purple Cow

I love the idea of being successful by being remarkable…worth talking about, standing out – but it can be a challenge to figure out how to do that.

Here’s Mr. Godin’s definition of being remarkable:

“…a lot of people appear confused about just what “remarkable” means. It’s not elitist. It’s not weird. It’s not cheap or expensive or big or small. It’s any or all of these things… it’s just something worth talking about.”

It’s the essence of word of mouth – generating business and interest from referrals and getting people to talk about you (in a positive way).  The opposite of being remarkable isn’t low quality – the opposite of remarkable is…boring, middle of the road, average…by definition not something that someone would talk about.

Think about the last ‘average’ movie you saw – it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great or particularly noteworthy in any way.  Did you tell anyone about it?  Probably not.

Now think about your business.  You do a good job when it comes to delivering your product or service – you might even do a great job, but is it remarkable?  Does anything stand out?  Do you create a ‘wow’ moment that people will talk about?

Let’s look at few examples here in Kansas City:

Shatto Milk

Most people in Kansas City have heard of Shatto Milk by now (if not, you might want to check out this article I wrote almost 2 years ago about winning the Missouri Business of the Year).

Shatto milk is the ultimate story in remarkable.  They took a total commodity (dairy products) and turned into a premium specialty that people love to talk about.

How did they do it?  Quality is part of it – as an example their chocolate milk was recently picked in the top 3…in the world!  But there are several other keys that really make them stand out:

• Their story (they almost went out of business and reinvented themselves),
• Their commitment to different ideas (using glass bottles, focus on freshness, using the farm as a tourist destination) and
• Their willingness to try out new and interesting products and flavors (my son loves the root beer flavored milk)!

Successful? – you bet, they’re stocked in almost every grocery store in town and sell (well) at a premium price.  Remarkable? – try their chocolate milk and see if you don’t find yourself telling someone about it!

Square One Interiors

There’s a pretty good chance that you haven’t heard of Square One Interiors yet – it was only started last summer by Courtnay Bradley.  Square One specializes in creating productive and practical commercial and office spaces.  If you’re moving into a new business space – Courtnay can get it built out for you.  If you’ve got an existing space that just doesn’t work very well, she can help you make it work…increasing productivity for you and for your employees.

There are a lot of companies in town who sell office furniture and a lot of them are similar – but there are a couple of things that set Square One apart:

1. They’re easy to do business with – Courtnay’s approach (and a big reason she decided to go out on her own) is to make it all about the customer and to focus on being easy to work with.
2. Courtnay is all about relationships…with her vendors, her partners and most importantly with her customers.  She did a great job describing her approach in a blog post a couple of months ago – It’s not business it’s personal!

Is she successful?  She’s still in start-up mode but she’s growing faster than she expected and all of her business so far has been from referrals and relationships – which also answers whether she’s remarkable!

Grinders

Grinders is a pizza joint in the Crossroads district – at first glance you might not pick up on anything different.  But this isn’t just any pizza place – it’s a dive…a dive featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!

What sets them apart?  Why are people talking about them?

It could be the food – they feature some unusual things like the Chili Bomb – Tater Tot Chili Pizza, the Bengal Tiger Pizza (really interesting India inspired pizza) and they are famous for their insanely hot ‘Death Wings’!

They have a great beer list and they go out of their way to find interesting craft beers to feature on the menu.

They also do a great job supporting the local music and arts scene and they’ve inspired a loyal following.

Successful?  They’ve been up and running for 5 years and they continue to grow.  Remarkable?  Let’s put it this way – my brother from St. Louis came into town and it was the one place he wanted to go check out since they had heard about Grinders from different people (and on TV)!

Being remarkable isn’t easy, but it is something that any business can do.  Come up with whatever is authentically different about how you do business and get people to start talking!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on other remarkable businesses in Kansas City – share them below in the comments!

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Maybe this has happened to you.  You’ve got a great idea for a new product or a new business – something you just know people are going to be lining up to buy.  You do some quick back of the napkin business planning and realize that you need to get the word out on your new brilliant stuff!  You need a website, or advertising or public relations!

The problem is that you’ve jumped directly to a marketing tactic and you’ve totally skipped the marketing strategy!

I’ve talked before about the importance of consistency when it comes to winning the marketing game – consistency comes from having a clear strategy for your marketing to begin with and then being able to stick to a plan.  However you have to have the plan first!

Not sure what I mean?  Here are 5 questions that will help you form your strategy first:

Marketing Strategy  – where to start?

I ran across a great marketing resource recently – The Reality Marketing Revolution, I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet (it’s back-ordered on Amazon) but I’ve heard good reviews and I did get to check out some of their other materials.

One of the things I really liked is their list of questions to consider as you’re looking at marketing your business or product.  It’s similar to the many conversations I have had with business owners.  However they’ve really honed it down to 5 straightforward questions that have to be answered if you’re going to have a strategy.

Question 1:  What are the company’s revenue goals over the next 12 – 18 months?

What do you really want to get out of this product or business?  If you don’t have a clear idea of how big this is going to be, then you can’t really determine how many customers you need, how large your reach is, etc.

Question 2:  Who is the exact target audience that will purchase your service?

The exact target audience…not everyone who can fog a mirror, but a detailed breakdown of what that audience looks like, acts like, thinks and feels if you can get there.  You have to know who you’re talking to if you’re going to be able to communicate with them.

Question 3:  What pains and problems does this target market have when they purchase services like yours?

You’re solving problems (or at least you better be if you want to succeed) but unless you’ve created something totally new, there’s an existing marketplace out there and they are likely unhappy with some aspects of existing solutions.  If they’re not unhappy it could be a tough market to get into (unlikely but possible).  You need to know what they’re not happy with:  An example:  Service Repair technicians that schedule an 8 hour window to come over and fix your appliances, cable, etc. 

Question 4:  What solutions does your company provide to cure those pains?

You have to provide a quality product or service, but to stand out you will need to do more.  You need to solve those other issues.  I know Joe’s plumbing will fix my sink, but I don’t know when he’s coming over and he always makes a mess.  If you can fix my sink and I can get a firm appointment and you’ll be extra careful not to leave a mess…then Joe’s out an existing customer!

Question 5:  How are those solutions remarkable enough to start a buzz and set you apart from the competition?

This one is tough – I’ve talked before about Shatto Milk as a great example of taking something common and doing something remarkable with it.  At Shatto they don’t really sell milk, they sell a premium drink with unusual and interesting flavors in old fashioned glass containers that both makes the drink taste fresher and is the epitome of green!  They sell milk, but it’s remarkable milk that people talk about and will pay a premium for.

Bottom line – you need to have a pretty good answer to all of the above questions if you want to succeed in the long run.  Have you taken the time to think through your overall strategy…before jumping into tactics?  If you need someone to talk you through all of the above – you might consider your local business coach! 

What does your business do to stand out and solve the problems people typically have with your industry?  I’d love to hear your examples – share them below.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Small Business Coach

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