The Charitable Organization
Building your network of quality people is essential to generating more and better leads, more quickly and efficiently. Crux Rainmaking advocates involvement in three organizations to help you build that network. In addition to industry and strategic organizations, charitable organizations can be a great way to achieve the twins goals of contributing back to society and meeting great people.
I have been truly honored by having the opportunity of serving on the Illinois Advocacy Committee for the American Heart Association (AHA), and on the Executive Leadership Team for the AHA’s major fundraiser, the Heart Walk (Click Here to donate!!!), coming up in September. Having lost my father to heart failure a few years ago, I am particularly sensitive to the need for continued research in the areas of heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in the United States. I am excited to be a part of the AHA team to help fight this disease.
Why get involved?
As a by-product of working with the AHA, I have had the opportunity of meeting some great people from all around the country. These are people who are committed to the cause and who dedicate their valuable time and effort to give back. I have been able to get to know these people in a unique way, based on our shared desire to eradicate the nation’s No 1 killer. These people are now part of my network of great contacts.
There are numerous charitable organizations to consider. I would recommend looking into charities with which you have some connection. This personal connection will fuel your enthusiasm for the long-term, and make your time best spent, given your personal stake in the organization’s cause. It also helps if you know someone already who is involved in a particular organization, because this person could give you some immediate insight into the organization, its culture, and what opportunities exist to get involved. Otherwise, simply reach out to the executive director or a board member or committee members, based on information you find online, and inquire about opportunities to get involved.
Making the most of a charitable organization
Once you identify a charitable organization that you feel might be appropriate, do not hesitate. Get involved. Volunteer for a committee, or an event, or something else that makes sense immediately. You will be contributing to the given cause, based on your personal connection to the cause, and will, as a by-product, meet some great people who have the potential of becoming life-long friends and contacts. These are people you can help in the future in any number of ways, and who may be able to assist you as well should the need arise.
Get involved! And good luck!
J.B.
Read MoreTop 5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Networking Groups
Whether you are a member of a business networking group, or are considering joining one, here are 5 top questions to ask yourself about any networking group:
1. Does the group have specific, written goals? Your networking group should have clearly defined, published, and compelling goals. Without them, the integrity of the organization is suspect, and it will be much more difficult to keep everyone within the group committed to a common cause. Examples: exponential expansion of quality business contacts, increased origination of business, enhanced sales and marketing skills, and creation of a trusted circle of business friends.
2. Does the group have a heightened level of care in the selection of members? Selecting the right professionals to join your networking group is critical to its long-term success. Invite only solid candidates into your group. Keep the group initially to between 10-20 members. Have clear member criteria. Examples: provide strategic non-competitive service/product, close familiarity to another member(s), ambition, same or great level of prior success as other members, deep and wide personal network of contacts and relationships.
3. Does the group have highly-structured meetings? The agenda for your meetings is critical to providing the most conducive setting for the exchange of ideas, contacts, and referrals. It must be organized and efficient, stripped of all fat, namely unnecessary topics and platforms for members to tie up the time of other members. Example: Have an agenda structure for meetings, including a formal call to order, recording of attendance, member success reports, new introductions, referrals and business opportunities.
4. Does the group regularly measure its results? A key aspect of running a business is the ability to measure the results of that business. Your networking group is similar to a for-profit business, in that the “revenue” of your networking business is the money you and your fellow group members generate from participation in the group, compared to how group members’ efforts could be utilized outside of the group, or with a different networking group. Examples: keep statistical spreadsheets, members track growth of personal originations and network of contacts.
5. Does the group keep members accountable? All networking group members must be held accountable for their participation in the group. Each member relies upon all other members to provide value to the group. If all members provide value, you will create a successful networking group. If not, there will be “weak links” that will ultimately create an unnecessary burden on the entire group. Example: To help keep members accountable, measure their performance against stated member expectations such as showing up for meetings, producing quality introductions for other members, remaining focused on the success of the group and individual members, etc.
Ask these 5 top questions of any existing networking group to which you belong or are considering joining. If you don’t get the answers you want, then either affect changes within the group, or exit it. If you exit or otherwise are looking to participate in a group, consider starting a Unique Business Networking Group—the most efficient type of networking group. Good luck!
J.B.
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Making the Most of Organizations
- Your local business newspaper (example: http://www.chicagobusiness.com )
- Search for open board positions. You can find a great post here at http://www.bridgestar.org/Library/ResourcesFindBoardPosition.aspx
- Check Google or Yahoo directory for a list of associations and organizations by industry. For examples: http://www.google.com/Top/Business/
Exactly How to Identify a Niche (The 10 Steps)
A few months ago, I introduced the concept of Niche Play, one of the five prongs of Strategic Lead Generation (SLG). And I promised to delve deeper into this important topic in future posts. This one will begin that process. In particular, I want to very explicitly outline—briefly—exactly how to first identify a niche in the marketplace. Once we have the checklist, we can efficiently use Niche Play to generate more and better leads, more quickly and more efficiently.
Step 1: Understand the goal of identifying a niche, which is OWNING THE TOPIC. You want to be the first to tackle a particular topic OR the first to put an original twist on an existing topic. Either way, you will—for the purposes of Crux Rainmaking—own the topic, such that prospects cannot go elsewhere to purchase what it is you are offering—at least for the short term. As we know, great ideas are often adopted by competitors. However, by being the first, you will forever have the first position in the mindset of the collective marketplace.
Step 2: Make lists of potential niche topics. Get out a piece of paper and write down various topics for further consideration. Don’t over think this step. Just do it. You already know of several possible topics without further research. Then go online and search for ideas and market indications of what might be valuable to prospects. Ask your existing clients, customers, or donors, as the case may be, what would be valuable to them. Ask your colleagues. Be creative. Write everything down.
Step 3: Pick one topic to vet fully. Select just one of the topics on your list. Pick one that you feel you would be most interested in getting behind and pursuing. Perhaps it relates to your particular existing knowledge base or maybe it is an area you have always been interested in learning more about.
Step 4: Learn the topic. If you already have some familiarity with the topic, deepen your knowledge. If you are not familiar with the topic, do everything within your power to understand it. Research online, read books on the general area of interest, ask colleagues for further depth, contact industry organizations for information that might be helpful, etc.
Step 5: Research what your competition is doing. You cannot be the first to tackle a topic if your competition is already doing so. And if your competition is already tackling it, then determine if there is a way to distinguish yourself by putting a creative, original twist on it.
Step 6: Test the potential niche topic on others to determine potential buyers, the level of demand in the marketplace, and how best to introduce it into the marketplace. You can create a simple survey that you send to existing and potential clients, customers, or donors for their opinion. Ask colleagues, friends, referral sources, and others within your network of contacts who might be able to contribute to your testing exercise.
Step 7: If the topic passes muster with Steps 1-6, then select this topic to run with. Then write a Niche Mission Statement summarizing the niche, the need for it, and your ability to deliver on it. Emphasize that you are the only one to provide the service, product, or charitable activity/endeavor. If your topic did not pass muster with Steps 1-6, then start again at Step 3 with another topic on your original list.
Step 8: Begin PR of your niche. Send emails to contacts (including potential and existing business relationships) introducing your niche offering, write an article on the topic, start a blog or newsletter, or create a video on the topic. Definitely start with emails to your contacts announcing your niche. I would recommend initially selecting just one of the other suggested ideas above, since each will require a fair amount of time and commitment to fully implement. After one is completed, consider implementing another.
Step 9: Measure the success of your niche. Keep a record of marketplace interest, inquiries, meetings, business won, any negative comments, positive comments, referral made, etc. that relate to your chosen niche.
Step 10: Be prepared to make adjustments to your niche as you implement it over the course of weeks and months. Very rarely will your initial implementation strategy be without need for improvement. Tweak the strategy as you learn more about marketplace reaction. Listen to the marketplace. Do not ignore signals that could help you improve your niche strategy.
Use these 10 steps to help select niche and get your Niche Play off the ground!
J.B.
Read MorePopulating The Crux Spreadsheet
Managing Information, one of the five prongs of Strategic Lead Generation (SLG), is a great way to keep track of our most promising leads and it provides a means by which we can recognize trends and other patterns to keep our lead generation efforts as efficient as possible.
Using a Crux Spreadsheet can be essential to efficiently managing our contact information. On it we can keep track of CRL1s (traditional leads), CRL2s (CRL1s who have asked for a proposal or who have discussed with us a specific project), Successes, Losses, and Referral Sources.
But how do we determine which of our contacts should be listed on the Crux Spreadsheet? If someone has hundreds of contacts this question becomes particularly tricky.
The answer is prioritization.
We must prioritize our contacts, starting with those who are the most promising. It is difficult to put a number on how many of our existing contacts should be part of our initial spreadsheet. However, it is prudent to start with our top 5-10 CRL1s, top 5-10 CRL2s, and top 5-10 Referral Sources. Keep the spreadsheet as manageable as possible as you get the feel of tracking your CRLs and measuring the efficacy of your Referral Sources. As you get more comfortable, scale your spreadsheet up to 2-5% of your existing contacts. Over time that percentage can increase.
In addition to your most promising, existing CRL1s, you will want to put new CRL1s on your spreadsheet as you meet them from and after the date you start your Crux Spreadsheet.
As you grow your Crux Spreadsheet you will be able to better understand and track why it might be prudent to pursue certain types of CRL1s as opposed to others in the future. You will better understand why some CRL1s transition more quickly to CRL2s than others. And you will better navigate the reasons why some CRL1s evolve into Successes and others don’t.
Better management of information = More and better leads more quickly and more efficiently.
J.B.
Read More5 Key Ways to Develop a Value Network
Gifting value to our network of contacts is one of the five prongs of Strategic Lead Generation (SLG) in Crux Rainmaking. This is the idea of aggressively making referrals and business introductions to those within our network of contacts. Doing so will exponentially increase the likelihood of our contacts rewarding us with business.
And with Crux Rainmaking, we don’t just make referrals and introductions, we aggressively do so. We are the first to gift value in a relationship, and we are not one-offs. We make multiple referrals and introductions to become memorable with our contacts.
But how do we build up valuable resources to be able to refer them to our network? If someone is looking for a referral to a particular service provider, how do we build relationships with that genre of service provider to be able to satisfy the referral request? If we want to introduce someone within our network that we feel could be a valuable referral source to someone else, how do we meet and build relationships with such valuable people?
This is often a question I get from newer professionals who simply have not had an opportunity yet to capture many contacts within their network. But whether you are a newer professional or a more seasoned one, the idea is to do a few things:
1. Utilize all the other prongs of SLG to meet more people—which you will. As you meet them, determine how they could provide value to others within your network.
2. Ask your colleagues who within their networks they can introduce you to so you can develop a relationship with them, at least enough to be able to refer or otherwise introduce them to others.
3. If you have started or participate in a Unique Business Networking Group, share contacts with your fellow group members.
4. Pay attention to your local business publications. There are always articles or other items which will let you know who is doing what in your area. Make it a point to introduce yourself to some of these people. If they are movers and shakers, chances are they will also want to expand their network, especially if the purpose of your call is to assist them in growing their business.
5. Ask your existing network (including your existing and potential clients, customers, or donors, as applicable, your referral sources, friends, family, etc.) to introduce you to people within their respective networks who might be good resources for you.
Developing a pool of valuable, trusted resources will take some time, but you can truncate that time by employing these 5 key ways to develop a value network. As you continue to build up your resources, you can continue to gift value to others within your network, further increasing the opportunity to grow your business!
J.B.
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