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How’s your networking working? Better if you follow the rules.

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I went to a networking meeting last week hosted by a formal networking organization called Business Network International.

Many of you know this group. They have meetings all over the world. This particular chapter meeting was in New York City, and is populated by sophisticated business people who are on fire.

NOTE WELL: NYC business people, in general, take no prisoners. This BNI chapter takes no amateurs. And their meetings are exceptionally well structured.

I went as a guest – without an agenda – just to meet people and provide value.

HISTORY: I began my networking career more than 25 years ago, so I consider myself a relatively sophisticated meeting attendee. This particular meeting is a pure networking group, rather than a social networking event, like a Chamber of Commerce meeting or an association meting.

The group predominantly meets to give business and get business. My interest was to meet new people, and observe how the meeting was run.

Before we get too deep into BNI and the NYC group, I’d like to review some networking imperatives in case you’re about to go to one of these meetings.

NOTE WELL: Most people take networking for granted, and think of it more as a place to meet friends and clients rather than capture an opportunity. They also fail to realize that people, whether you know them or not, are cultivating an impression of you – not just about you look like, but also based on how you act and how you dress.

Your physical presence, your physiology, and your communication prowess can determine whether the outcome is business or no business.

These are my top 9.5 rules for achieving positive and profitable networking results:
1. I shake and look. When I shake someone’s hand, it’s a firm grasp and a direct look in the eye.
2. I smile. Even in New York City. I found that by giving smile, I get a smile.
3. I ask before I tell. Whether I ask for their name, or a simple “how are you?” I want to hear the other person before they hear me.
4. I give before I get. I have always tried to make connections for others before I ask for one myself.
5. I don’t make small talk. I make big talk. I don’t want to talk about the weather. I want to talk about life and business life.
6. I want to make certain that I take a ‘next step’ if the opportunity is there. Anything from a simple exchange of business cards, to a cup of coffee, to an office meeting, to an invite to a social event, I want to make sure that my objective is achieved before I leave to talk to the next person.
7. Known or unknown? That is the question. I prefer to invest the majority of my networking time with people that I do not know. The reason is that I tend to make small talk with people that I know, and bigger talk with people that I don’t know. My personal rule has always been, small talk leads to small business or no business, and big talk leads to big business, or the opportunity for big business.
8. I like everyone and qualify no one. If you like people, it’s likely they will like you back. If you try to qualify people (by asking them questions about money or circumstance), their guard will go up.
9. Every connection need not be a sale. Make friends, build rapport, and provide value to everyone without prejudging or qualifying them. I refer to it as: “the rule of you never know.” And “you never know” has no time limit. Sometimes “you never know” happens in a week, and sometimes it happens 5 years later. That’s why it’s called “you never know.”
9.5 I am brief. Time allocation at a networking event is not an option. If there are 60 people in the room and the meeting lasts for one hour, you have 1 minute per person if you want to meet everyone. If you take 5 minutes with each person, you can only meet 12 people. The choice is yours, but be aware of time.

I’ve just given you the parameters, the guidelines, and the rules that I have personally been following for 25 years. There are other rules and you can find them in my Little Black Book of Connections, but these are the major ones that will make connections, make appointments, build relationships, and ultimately make sales.

Next week I am going to talk about why the BNI meeting was incredible, and how you can learn from it. Stay tuned.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Is your weight loss tied to your sales gain?

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Everyone knows that as a nation we are somewhere between overweight and obese. This is not good.

I tell my audiences, “we are so overweight as a country, if we were invaded by enemies, we couldn’t even run away.”

The reason I’m writing is not to tell you what I plan on doing, rather it is to tell you what I have done, what I’m doing about it, and how I will continue this process.

For the past five years I’ve weighed somewhere between 205 and 209 pounds. That’s not good for a kid who weighed 160 in college. Granted that was some time ago, but it’s no excuse to be 50 pounds over college weight.

Much like you, I lamented it instead of doing anything about it. I wrote about, and bragged that I was on my way to losing weight. I never did. I bragged that I was sick and tired of being overweight, and I was going to go on a major weight loss program. I never did.

Loyal readers sent me messages of encouragement, diet plans, MLM pill plans, chocolate plans, coffee plans, and assorted health options. I never did any of them.

But silently and secretly, I began losing weight. Now that I’m down below 190 (almost a 20 pound loss), I can come out of the closet (or should I say come off of the scale), and begin to talk about it.

Besides the weight loss, I firmly believe that sales and health go hand-in-hand. I believe that my physical well-being will improve my sales well-being, while enhancing my mental well-being.

I also found that losing weight is not just about watching what you eat. It’s a combination of thinking healthy, eating healthy, and exercise.

Here is what I have found to be true to lose the first 20 pounds:

Thinking: you have to have a DAILY mindset, and a mental awareness of what you’re doing at all times. Especially about what you eat. Two keywords are: eat less. Two more keywords are: eat healthy. And the final keywords are: weigh yourself. Thinking leads to shrinking.

Eating: No secret formula or diet or pills here. Here’s what I did: I’ve switched to club soda or water. No other drink. When I drink club soda, I add a squeeze of fresh lemon and lime. I eat as much raw fruits and vegetables as I can. I limit bread and all other empty carbohydrates. That’s it. I sacrifice very little. And if I occasionally feel like having some kind of pastry or candy, I eat it, or should I say, I eat half of it. I learned that moderation is the key to weight loss. If I order something at a restaurant, I eat half, and push the rest away.

Exercising: Enter CYBEX. More than an exercise machine, it’s a healthy alternative to being a couch potato. I have a Cybex machine in my home. Exercising for 20 to 30 minutes three or four times a week has made me feel fit and firm. No, I don’t have a lot of muscle, but I do have a good feeling every time I finish (even though there are many days when I’m reluctant to start). For me, exercise is a bigger discipline than diet, but now that I’m actually losing weight, the desire to keep up the habit is nearing the stage of compelling.

I should also add losing weight at my age (68) is a hell of a lot harder than it is if you’re in your 20’s, 30’s, or 40’s.

Okay so I’m down almost 20 pounds. I’m a little more than halfway home. I intend to drop down to somewhere between 170 and 175 pounds. I believe that’s my healthiest weight, and also my best selling weight. And as a public speaker I believe it will increase my credibility significantly.

This will be my first in a series of articles about the importance of mental success and physical success. Every person who has ever written about anything having to do with human success and all personal development books at their core, stress the need to combine mental health and physical health. I will be no exception.

With 20 less pounds on me, everything is a bit easier. Even the mundane things like putting on your socks and tying your shoes are noticeably easier.

But the best part about having a few less pounds is how I feel about myself when I look in the mirror in the morning. Okay, I’m not the prettiest specimen in the world, but I love my new look. I also love weighing myself.

Some mornings I can’t believe how far I’ve come, but my incentive is to keep going until I reach my desired outcome.

Yes I have a support system, and yes I have an exercise machine of my own, but the key to my success has been my own self-discipline and my own desire to keep my healthy process moving forward.

And please be aware, I’m not bragging about what I’ve done. Rather I’m sharing information about how to get and stay healthy, and hopefully inspire you to do the same. Odds are you have 10 or 20 extra pounds on you that you wish you didn’t have. And you can’t will it away.

Come on dude, wake up and smell the pop-tarts – just don’t eat them.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Importance of Great Web Design

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The Importance of Great Web Design
Photo courtesy of Jung-nam Nam

Many business owners we speak to shrug off the importance of web design. “They just make it look pretty, right?” Wrong. Great web design is integral to the growth and presence of your business. These days, your website is the central aspect of your business. It is the gravitational center of your web presence. Customers make instant decisions about your company based on your website. Do they feel comfortable? Do they understand the purpose? Do they know how to find what they want? In today’s post, we’ll look at exactly why great web design is so important.

User experience – As we said before, visitors to your site make an instant judgement based on design. Great web design makes visitors feel instantly at home on your page. The layout will be intuitive and instinctive. The layout will be familiar but with a personal touch. Web visitors scan internet pages in a very specific way. Good designers understand this process and know how to capitalise on it. They’ll take your visitors on the journey and make the experience seamless.

Branding – Branding has always been a vital part of the marketing process. They say that a customer needs to see your branding 20 times before they make a strong connection with it. Your website is a great way to solidify and strengthen that brand. We spoke to a web design company for some essential branding tips. They told us that the best designers incorporate the colours from your branding palette into the site. They use your logo in strategic places where the eye falls most often. These are just some of the many great tricks used by the experts.

Trust – This one may sound dubious, but it is backed up by strong data. 94% cite web design as a reason they don’t trust a company. Poor and thoughtless design is easy to spot and it tells the user everything they need to know. There are some ways you can improve trust through design. It’s all about reputation. Show off large social media numbers and highlight prominent clients.

Mobile consideration – In 2014, internet access on mobile devices overtook computer access. More people are using the web on their phones than their laptops now. For that reason, it’s essential that your design is adaptable for mobile use. Failing to do this means losing over half of your potential customer base. The best mobile sites are designed and built by experts, we suggest you use one.

Reach goals – Every website should have a prioritised list of goals. It could be as simple as increasing web traffic. It could be to increase online sales or to extend your community reach. Whatever your goals, good web design is built around these fundamentals. The best web designers shape the site to highlight and promote these aspects. Good web design will help you reach those goals faster.

Web design should be at the very core of your online marketing strategy. It will make or break your customer relationships. Good design will increase trust, awareness and profits. Take the time to get it right and don’t be scared to invest some money here. Think your site could do with sprucing up? What are you waiting for?

Beyond networking… all the way to new business.

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I’ve been attending networking clubs and networking meetings for the better part of 25 years.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Business Networking International event with Chapter Lucky 62 in New York City as a guest. I wanted to give a short talk on networking strategies, but it seems as though the rules of the club forbade it. Respecting that, I attended anyway.

I didn’t really know what to expect since I had never been to a BNI networking meeting before, but I must say, whether they had selected me as a speaker or not, the meeting was exceptional. Very structured, but exceptional. And did I mention structured?

It began with a two-minute educational segment. I expected someone to get up, hem and haw, and give some weak tip. Instead, I listened to an amazing duet that turned their tip into a song!

The singsong tip got the meeting off to an incredible start – both in tempo and in tone. The message was so well constructed and completely customized that I am including it here for your educational pleasure.

Let me tell you something about your personality
You’re the only one with it, so let it shine brightly.
You may not be the only lawyer doctor broker cake decorator accountant in town,
But you’re the only one that’s unique inside and out

So let me tell you how
To stand out from the crowd

You gotta lead with your personality
You gotta lead with your personality
They have got to see individuality
You gotta lead with your personality

You may share a profession with a thousand other folks.
But what sets you apart is you make really lame jokes.
And that’s ok, it just ads to your character, it makes you like-able
People do business with people they like,
Especially if they like title!

So let me tell you how,
To stand out from the crowd

The singer-songwriter, Antony Bitar, is a real estate salesman. If you think his song lyric is great, you should see his YouTube introduction of himself for his real estate business. This guy gets it.

The guitar player accompanying Antony, Adam Lomeo, was actually showcasing his talents to the group. Which, by the way, were flawlessly excellent.

Back to the meeting… After the introduction, a sheet of paper was passed to each attendee that contained everyone’s signature slogan. I was about to be exposed to one of the coolest, one-of-a-kind introduction routines I’ve ever seen. About 80 members are given 30 seconds each to give their introduction, and at the end, the entire group recites their tag line.

As you can imagine, some of them were classic. A woman photographer ended her commercial with “I shoot your family” and the group responded, “so you don’t have to.” And the Xerox salesperson said she had been copying since the 2nd grade when she copied off her buddy’s test paper – the audience howled.

I did get to give a short 1-minute talk – my host, Jennifer Gluckow, gave me her commercial spot, but I went over my 1 minute time limit and got dinged. Timing is everything.

After the 30-second commercials, two people got to give a 5-minute talk to give the members and their visitors a more in-depth look at their business and their ideal referral partners.

Before the meeting ended, members had the chance to thank each other for business, or at least the opportunities for business. And there was a lot of it.

Then a black book was passed around the room where members entered the dollar amount of their closed business from BNI referrals. NOTE WELL: They’ve passed more than $4 million this year in referral business. WOW!

This was one of the most serious, yet fun business groups, hell-bent on self-promotion and giving business. And did I mention structured?

Here are 4.5 things you can learn from this meeting:

1. You don’t always have to say your message. Sometimes you can sing it, and it’s much more attractive and effective.

2. Creating group participation for individual commercials is both powerful and memorable. When 80 people say your tag line in unison, it creates a unity of group and memorability of message – especially if it’s funny.

3. Leads and networking groups don’t work unless there are plenty of leads and everyone is willing to give them. This group was just as interested in giving as they were in getting. Huge – especially in NYC.

4. The science of networking is getting more sophisticated. You have to be prepared, be willing to share, and be reputable.

4.5 Your creativity, style, and overall presence create attraction. Master all three elements.

I’ll be back in NYC in a few weeks. The BNI meeting is at the top of my list to attend. I’ll be bringing a few leads.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

What investment in your business are you REALLY making?

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‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) in business is predicated on the ability of the company to deliver as promised in product, profit, and its accompanying service.

It’s amazing to me that everyone measures ROI to the penny, and no one measures ROS (return on service) at all.

Most companies are too busy pissing their money away on customer satisfaction surveys when they could eliminate the survey costs, and spend half of that money training people to improve service, and measure the only three things in business that matter: repeat business, profit margins, and referrals – all the rest of the ‘satisfaction’ process is an empty waste of time and money.

Let’s get real here, when J.D. Power gives the customer satisfaction award to an airline, what could the category possibly be? Least crappy?

The object of service is to be so amazing that one person tells another person, or one person posts to their Facebook account, or both. How’s yours?

The key to profitable repeat business and unsolicited referrals is to create genuine word-of-mouth, and word of mouse about the company, the products and services, and especially the people.

ROI REALITY: Do you want to deliver service that’s satisfactory or remarkable?
ROI REALITY: Do you want to deliver service that’s satisfactory or memorable?

Return on service can take place in any part of the business. Here are the most prominent examples:

  • Provide positive attitude training for everyone in the company
  • Provide specific and customized empowerment service training for everyone in the company (what is EACH employee allowed to do and say to a customer?)
  • The receptionist or telephone operator. This is the customer’s first point of contact and sets the tone for the entire transaction.
  • Ship an order error free and backorder free. Get them what they want fast and seamlessly.
  • The delivery and arrival of a customer shipment. Packaging determines image, and the condition of the contents upon arrival proves their worth to the shipper and the care of the shipping department. A HUGE part of re-order consideration.
  • The accounting department people. Accounting can play a major role in customer loyalty. The way they talk to an account, the frequency of error, their accuracy of invoicing, and the common courtesy they may display when someone is late making a payment.
  • Damned automated attendant. No one on earth wants to hear their telephone call answered by a computer, yet every major company in the world employs these godforsaken things. There has to be a better way, and the person that creates it will make billions.
  • The speed, accuracy, and outcome of handling a complaint. Complaints go WAAAAY beyond one customer. They go all the way to social media.

You must perform REMARKABLE or MEMORABLE service for:

  • Following up and thanking customers for an order
  • Following up and making certain that the service call went perfectly
  • Making certain that everyone on the inside of the company is well rewarded, and well thanked for a job well done.

And for those of you who still possess an ounce of skepticism about ROS after these truths, here are some additional ‘return’ elements to consider.

Many Happy Returns:

  • Return on training. Especially for front line people.
  • Return on morale. Internal happiness creates customer happiness.
  • Return on leadership. The leader sets the tone and the attitude BY EXAMPLE.
  • Return on friendliness. All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends.
  • Return on getting the job done ahead of schedule. Real profit created by exceptional team effort.
  • Return on wowing the customer. Priceless. Period.
  • Return on accuracy. Beyond a good feeling all the way to respect – and reorder.
  • Return on quality product. This is a given, but creates more word-of-mouth than any other single forum.
  • Return on positive social media posts. Social media is the new “satisfaction” survey or report.
  • • Return on value messages offered to customers on a consistent basis. Weekly value-based messages to customers create life-long desires to stay connected.
  • Return on using voice-of-customer in YouTube, blog, and Facebook video posts. When you say it about yourself it’s bragging. When someone else says it about you, it’s proof. Video proof is the new proof.

Big companies hammer their entire workforce to make certain that their customer satisfaction scores are high or higher, when they could be (should be) creating an internal training program that begins with the word wow, and progresses upward from there.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].