The Person to See

Wealth. Freedom. Influence

Using LinkedIn as a Powerful Networking Tool

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Time-tested Formula

 

Below is a time-tested, nine-step formula one of my clients, who is a million-dollar plus producer year after year, uses to get just about any meeting he wants using LinkedIn.

1. Build out your profile as much as possible

– Get ranked as an all-star
– Post articles, testimonials any information that credentials you as THE expert
– Write your bio in the first person
– Make you headline catchy and, if possible, fascinating
– Manage your endorsements so they reflect your personal brand

2. ONLY link with people you have met in person. You may have to go back in and unlink from some people. This makes your database much more credible.

3. Every new prospect/client you meet send a LinkedIn request

4. Join whatever groups you are interested in (e.g. venture capitalists, CFO forum)

– After you join a group makes a post once or twice per week. When you do it sends out notification to everyone. Gets more views for your profile.

5. Under your Homepage start a discussion. Again, will get your profile viewed. Shows you are active

6. Start your own group. My guy and his partner started their own group and invited all their contacts to join. Do a post to your group a few times per month

7. Every other month rework something in your profile. When you do it notifies everyone in your network. More profile views

8. Make your LinkedIn profile part of your signature line in your emails

9. Getting meetings:

– Go to LinkedIn and log in as yourself. Go to the text box and type in who you want to meet. See who you have in common.
– Pick my strongest two connections and ask for introductions
– Offer to write the introductory email for them
– You need to follow up with people who say they will make introductions. People are busy. It is the old Jerry Maguire philosophy, “Help people help you.”
– Once the introduction is made to you, you need to take it from there. If you do not get the response you had hoped for do NOT become a stalker AND to not complain to the person who introduced you, “Your buddy did not call me back.” Be prepared to move on.

 

 

 

Personal Branding Is A Journey, Not A Sprint

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Let me take you back to October 30, 1974, Heavyweight Champion, George Foreman was squaring off against Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.

 

Personal Branding Mastery

 

Muhammad Ali was the master of personal branding. He arrived in the Republic of the Congo a month before the fight on a private plane to much fanfare. The red carpet was rolled out, the band played the Congo’s national anthem and dignitaries met Ali at the airport.

Ali took advantage of his time. Rather than train in solitude he woke up every morning and ran through the dust covered streets from village to village. To rally the adoring fans that lined the streets as he ran by, Ali asked, how do you say “Kill him in their native language Lingala. The answer is “Bomaye.”

Day after day, Ali ran through villages raising his fist and chanting to the Congolese people who lined the roadside, “Ali!” to which they responded on cue, “Bomaye!” By the time Foreman had arrived the entire country was in Ali’s pocket.

Fast forward two weeks. Foreman arrives in the Congo to the same pageantry as Ali. Foreman’s brand at the time was “mean” and he embraced it with every ounce of his being. When the doors to his plane opened, Foreman boldly stepped out with a handful of leashed attached to his German Shepard dogs. Problem was during World War II the Germans tormented the Congolese people with their German Shepard’s. Immediately, the entire country was against Foreman.

The rest is history. Ali went on to knock out Foreman in one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.

 

From “Mean” to “Nice”

 

Foreman went on to have two more uneventful fight, both of which he lost. He returned to the mean streets of Houston. After licking his wounds, Foreman decided it was time for the next chapter in his life. He dedicated himself to helping the children of Houston’s inner city. He also became an ordained minister.

Eventually, Foreman decided that the children needed a youth center they could call their own. The problem was they had no money to buy, let alone, build one. Foreman decided that he would raise the money by doing what he did best…get back into boxing. The problem was, Foreman had ballooned to over 300 pounds. He was undeterred.

He also changed his brand to “nice.”

Choose Your Own Personal Brand

 

Despite all the ridicule for being too old and too fat, Foreman persisted. He eventually regained the heavyweight championship at the age of 46, knocking out Michael Moorer. The oldest man to ever do so.

It didn’t end there. Foreman went on to become, perhaps the most lovable sports figure in the world. He signed a slew of endorsement deals, including attaching his name to the George Foreman Grill. He eventually sold his interest in the George Foreman Grill for more than $200MM. Not bad for a guy who changed his brand from mean to nice.

Never Allow Bitterness To Consume You

 

The morale of this story for me is, where we start out is not always where we end up. The key to George Foreman’s renaissance was he never allowed bitterness to consume him.

 

It is a fact. If you try to make the most out of your life, you will fail and run into roadblocks. Some may seem insurmountable. At the end of the day, our personal branding journey is nothing more than a series of choices we make, including how we respond to our setbacks.

 

 

 

Networking That Matters Four Proven Strategies

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Does this sound like anyone you know?

I would venture to say that 90% of all networking encounters don’t amount to anything because of what I call “intentional inaction.”

Two people go to a networking event and meet each other. After some conversation, they exchange cards because they surmise there might be a reason to stay in contact. They go back to their lives the following day, put each other’s’ card on their respective desk and nothing ever happens again between the two people

Truth be told, this is most people. This kind of behavior is what I call “Unintentional Inaction.” We take no action after the event, even though they know there might be potential to build a mutually beneficial relationship. Our lack of action is not intentional but rather, because we are lazy, afraid or don’t know what to do.

I have good news! I am going to teach you the only four action steps that matter when it comes to networking. They are:

─ Asking for the business

─ Be a connector/resource

─ Set up a Starbucks meeting

─ Intentional Inaction

A bit about each networking action summarized below.

 

Asking for the Business

We always need to be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity to nudge our nose under the tent. By “asking for the business” language I do not mean it has to be a situation where you point blank ask for the sale. Those situations do present themselves occasionally, and when they do we must be ready. But, more often, it is a situation where somebody makes casual reference to a problem they are experiencing that we can solve. We need to be ready to advance the ball in these moments.

It might be a comment like, “Oh, we helped a client with a similar problem. Would you like me to share what we did?”

Maybe it is a suggestion to meet or an offer to connect to discuss the issue further after the event.

Here’s a great example, I was talking to one of my clients (We’ll call him Conner) and he shared with me that he was on a boat fishing in Alaska with a potential customer (We’ll call the customer Pete).

At the time of this encounter, Pete was not doing business with Conner or his firm.

While Conner and Pete were out on the river, Pete asked Conner what he did. Conner, being prepared, told Pete what he did. Pete casually responded, “Oh, I am working on a project like that right now.” There was no intention on the part of Pete to open the door for Conner. It was just a casual comment. Didn’t matter to Conner. He seized the opportunity and said, “Well, why don’t you give us a shot and see what we can do?”

According to Pete, Conner didn’t respond. It didn’t matter. Conner took the chance and who knows what may happen down the road. I suggested to Conner that he follow up with an email to Pete.

The bottom-line is we must always look out for the opportunity to push a little business. If we don’t exercise this muscle we will always be at the mercy of others, hoping they pick us.

For those who feel this approach is “too pushy” I say, “hogwash!” I never met a successful person who wasn't at least, a little bit pushy.

If we do not advocate for ourselves no one else will.

 

Be a Connector/Resource

It is not always about us. We love it when people reach out to us, so we must be prepared to help in kind. It does not have to be just business – think personal life as well. I have actually set up two sets of people on a blind dates who eventually got married.

Zig Ziglar said it best, “Help enough people get what they want, and you’ll have everything you want.”

Here are three tips to help you be a even better giver:

  • Don't give to get. Give just because you want to give.
  • Don't keep score. It is not about, “I gave you three referral. You owe me three now.”
  • Go first. Give before you get. This goes a long way towards building good will.

The key is to be on the lookout for opportunities to help other people be successful.

 

 

Starbucks Meetings

This is the next key networking action I have found to be extremely effective. I built my business on this strategy. Whenever I meet someone who has a great network I always invite them to coffee at Starbucks (or Coffee Bean if you live in California) to see how we can help each other grow our businesses. I call these my pull-me-up meetings.

Here’s the language I would use. “It seems like you and I might be able to help each other grow our businesses. Would you be interested in grabbing a cup of coffee?”

When I first started out promoting my Rainmaker U. program, I tried to have 40 pull-me-up meetings a quarter. Most of them never went anywhere. But, I only needed a few to count. Remember, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find one prince.”

These meeting are not focused on selling the person you invited to coffee. The purpose of these meetings is to build relationships with other superstars who you can nurture into key strategic centers of influence.

Think long-term.

 

Intentional Inaction

This is the exact opposite of what I described above under asking for the business, connecting and scheduling coffee meetings.

In this situation, you have run through the three steps above and have determined that none of them apply so you are INTENTIONALLY deciding not to tack action.

It's okay to do nothing as long as it is a product of critical thinking.

In those situations where no further action makes sense, we might say, “I have enjoyed our conversation. Why don’t we see if we can mingle with some other people?”

Key's to excusing yourself:

– Be polite

– Honest (e.g. Don't say, “Why don't you give me your card and I will follow up with you?”)

– Smile, make eye  contact and shake hands.

– Pretty easy, no.”

 

Summary

To sum it all up, “Intentionality” is the key. If you get intentional and apply the above action steps to your networking, watch the quality of your interactions skyrocket!

If you want to put your business development on steroids, check out our new business development program, The Box System.

 

5 Strategies to Help You Stand Out From Your Competition

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Help me! I am Stuck in the Middle of the Pack and I Cannot Break Free from the Competition 

Sound familiar? Are you finding it harder and harder to stand out from the rest of the pack? If so, you are not alone. But, that is no excuse for not trying to figure out new ways to differentiate yourself from the competition. 

 

Why is it so tough? 

There are three reasons why it is so tough today to differentiate ourselves from our competition. Or if we are lucky enough to find something that differentiates us, it is hard to sustain that differentiation long-term. The competition always seems to catch up.

The first reason is we live in a commodity world. There are no longer any trade secrets. The internet has rendered trade secrets obsolete. Even if you do have something special, it won’t be too long before your competition figures it out and copies you.  

This dynamic has expanded people’s menu of options. All one needs to do is hop on the internet, type in their search topic and voila! dozens of options magically appear. The more choices our target audience has the more commoditized we become. 

Second, years ago the American economy was dominated by the sale of goods. Today, 79.4% of the GDP is powered by the sale of services. The problem is 80% of buyers are visual. This means buyers need to see something to validate their buying decisions. With everybody selling the invisible, it all becomes a blur to the buyer. 

Lastly, it is unbelievably noisy in the marketplace with all the competition. Statistics show that the average person receives 3000 email messages a week. There is more information in one Sunday edition of the New York Times than a 19th century Englishman was likely to acquire over his entire lifetime.  

According to Harry Beckwith, author of What Clients Love, the people who win today are the filterers, synthesizers, and condensers. Less is more has never been more essential. 

 

The 5 Strategies To Help You And Your Business Stand Out From The Competition

 

Strategy #1 – Build a great personal brand.

I am convinced that personal branding is the final frontier of marketing. It is the only asset we have total and enduring control over. And it speaks to all three challenges in today’s marketplace. 

It cannot be commoditized because you are uniquely you.

Your personal brand satisfies that visual element that the customer needs to see in order to confidently make a buying decision.

A personal brand cuts through all the noise. When people meet us for the first time they form an impression in just ¼ of one second. You can block calls, emails, and snail mail, but you cannot stop someone who is in front of you from communicating his/her message. And, before they even utter a word. 

 

Strategy #2 – Think, struggle, fight to find that one thing that makes your product and service unique.  

Thomas Edison once remarked that, “Man will do everything he can to avoid the hardest of all labors, which is think for himself.” How hard are you thinking about your differentiating factor(s)? 

Don’t get bogged down in trying to find that one thing that only you have, like a Google algorithm or secret recipe. It may not exist. Being one of a select few is good enough. Pick it, craft your message around it, and sell it with everything you have. In other words, go all in.

 

 

Strategy #3 – Do things differently than your competition.

I have coached commercial real estate brokers for years and I have asked, (no, begged) them to try to do something different then their competition when making a competing pitch. If you have ever sat through a pitch you quickly realize everyone is essentially the same. They say the same things in exactly the same way. It is the safe approach.

Here's the formula:

Broker #1 comes in and covers the following topics: Introductions, Market, Services, Results and if there are a few minutes, he/she touches on uniqueness. Brokers 2-5 come in and say the same thing. How do you think the customer feels? 

What if broker #6 came in and said: “I am going to briefly introduce our team. Our resumes are in front of you. I’ll spend a few minutes on the market, a few minutes on our services and past customers, but the bulk of our time is going to be spent on telling you how we are unique.” 

How can you do what you are doing differently than the competition? 

Problem is it is too much work. It is easier to just grind it out the same way “We have all been doing it for years.”

Now, that's depressing.

 

Strategy #4 – Be a dynamic storyteller.

I don’t necessarily mean get up in front of your audience and tell stories that capture your audience's imagination. Although, at times that doesn’t hurt.

What I am talking about is telling the story of you and your products and services in an interesting way. Or at least better  then your competition does.

How good are you at telling the story of you and what you have to offer? Have you ever asked anyone?

Two people can deliver the exact same content, but deliver two entirely different messages.

Strive to be be interesting. That may be all you need to differentiate yourself.  

 

Strategy #5 – Take a chance.

Fortune favors the brave. Make your move before you are ready and your net will appear.  

I remember years ago, Monster.com rolled the dice and risked its entire marketing budget on one Super Bowl ad. Think about that. There entire company was riding on one ad. It turned out to be a smash hit and overnight Monster.com was on the map and a player in the recruiting space. 

What risks are you avoiding? 

There are few things that capture the attention of others like a reputation of someone who is not afraid to take chances.

If you want help crafting messages that will help you stand our from your competition than you will want to check our our Creating Million-Dollar Messages program.