I just returned from eWomenNetwork National Conference and I will say it was electrifying. The energy along with the brilliant and powerful women just blew my mind. However, I would suspect that many of those who attended will not follow up and will lose many amazing opportunities.
What about you? How many networking events, seminars, lunches and coffees have you attended and afterwards you found yourself with a bunch of business cards that you politely place inside your top desk drawer?
Here is the thing..if you do not follow up you will not grow your business the way you wish. I too struggle with the same challenges as you and what I learned is one simple truth…if it is left up to me solely I will FAIL. I know you are probably thinking…how motivating? But I am a truth teller and I am reminded of a quote by W. Edward Deming that states “95% of all failure has nothing to do with the people but rather the systems.” Let me just add to the quote by saying or lack of a system.
What is your plan when you attend a networking event? Do you have a systematic and automated way of following up? If the answer is no then I will sadly predict that you will fail. It is because I am committed to your success that I am willing to have this big girl conversation with you and challenge you to look at what you are doing in regards to follow-up.
Here are the some things to consider:
1) Prior to attending a networking event, clearly determine your outcome or objective. How many people would you like to meet? Or is there a certain person you are targeting?
2) Make sure you have time blocked out to follow up. If you are attending a breakfast or lunch…schedule (1) hour in the afternoon on the same day to send personal notes, emails, or follow-up calls to schedule those all important lunches or coffees. If it is an evening event…schedule time the following morning before you begin your day.
3) Place them into you autoresponder systems…with permission so that you can systematically drip on them. I would highly recommend you checkout a service such as Monster Follow-Up.
4) Make the appointment and keep the appointment. I cannot tell you how many people who have called me to have coffee and then flake because something came up which was deemed more important than a new client. Unbelievable but true. Be a person of integrity and honor your commitments. Another great tool for scheduling appointments is TimeTrade which helps with the automation process.
5) Determine how you can serve them while you are at the meeting. If it is a connection….make the introduction. If it is a book…send them a copy. ADD value first and then work at nurturing the relationship.
These are just some business strategy tips that you can do to really impact, improve and skyrocket your sales.
Happy networking…or better yet “To the Follow-Up!”
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Business Strategy Coach Tip: Don't Get Hacked
I woke up on a Saturday morning and my assistant a.k.a. Christopher stepped into my office to inform me that he couldn’t get onto my blog to do the maintenance and clean up that I had commissioned him to do. After several failed attempts, it became crystal clear that we had a problem. Support ticket and 25 minutes wait time lead to the word that literally de-stablized me…”Your website has been compromised by a malicious force.” I kid you not…that was the language to inform me that someone had “hacked” my account. All (7) of my websites were compromised.
Here are the lessons I learned that I figured what a great coaching opportunity to share with my community.
There are three things that you must do on a regular basis if you are using WordPress as a platform for your blog, membership site or company’s website.
1) BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP - Did you hear me say backup? Yes…this was the one thing that I didn’t think about or even know that you should do. Backup your wordpress files. The easiest way to do it is to log in to your wp-admin and over to the left you will see a tab named “Tools.” If you click on tools you will see export tab…this allow you to export all of your posts, pages, pictures, media and comments to a file on your hard-drive and obvious you should be backing up your hard-drive…right? By doing this one thing it will save you a lot of pain and anquish if someone decides they don’t like you or that they are bored or whatever god-forsaken reason someone would choose to hack someone’s blog.
2) Update to New Version – Whenever I would log into my blog to make an update I would notice at the top of the page it would say new update available. In the past, I would ignore and continue working but what I’ve learned is that is how they are able to get in. They are able to write a “malicious script” from the older version and when you fail to update to the newer version you are leaving yourself wide open to get hacked. It really takes less than a minute…you just click on the update and click automatically update and voila (30 seconds later) you are done.
3) Change Your Passwords Frequently – What does frequently look like? For everyone it is going to be different but I would recommend at least quarterly if you are the only one in charge of the site. If you are outsourcing I would recommend that you do it on a monthly basis. I have hired and sadly fired over 8 virtual assistants which means there were 8 people who had access to my site. Not to mention when you hire someone to install it on your hosting account. Protect yourself…I am not suggesting that a virtual assistant would stoop so low as to sabotage your work. But this is your life’s work and your livelihood…not to mention your brand and reputation. Yes… it will take additional time which you may not have but at the end of the day it is well worth it.
Learn from my mistakes and take heed. As you grow your business and become more and more successful, you will make enemies. Everyone will not like you that sadly is the world we live in. Set-up your firewall, protect your computers, and do what you are good at which I hope is transforming and changing lives. To your success!
Here are the lessons I learned that I figured what a great coaching opportunity to share with my community.
There are three things that you must do on a regular basis if you are using WordPress as a platform for your blog, membership site or company’s website.
1) BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP - Did you hear me say backup? Yes…this was the one thing that I didn’t think about or even know that you should do. Backup your wordpress files. The easiest way to do it is to log in to your wp-admin and over to the left you will see a tab named “Tools.” If you click on tools you will see export tab…this allow you to export all of your posts, pages, pictures, media and comments to a file on your hard-drive and obvious you should be backing up your hard-drive…right? By doing this one thing it will save you a lot of pain and anquish if someone decides they don’t like you or that they are bored or whatever god-forsaken reason someone would choose to hack someone’s blog.
2) Update to New Version – Whenever I would log into my blog to make an update I would notice at the top of the page it would say new update available. In the past, I would ignore and continue working but what I’ve learned is that is how they are able to get in. They are able to write a “malicious script” from the older version and when you fail to update to the newer version you are leaving yourself wide open to get hacked. It really takes less than a minute…you just click on the update and click automatically update and voila (30 seconds later) you are done.
3) Change Your Passwords Frequently – What does frequently look like? For everyone it is going to be different but I would recommend at least quarterly if you are the only one in charge of the site. If you are outsourcing I would recommend that you do it on a monthly basis. I have hired and sadly fired over 8 virtual assistants which means there were 8 people who had access to my site. Not to mention when you hire someone to install it on your hosting account. Protect yourself…I am not suggesting that a virtual assistant would stoop so low as to sabotage your work. But this is your life’s work and your livelihood…not to mention your brand and reputation. Yes… it will take additional time which you may not have but at the end of the day it is well worth it.
Learn from my mistakes and take heed. As you grow your business and become more and more successful, you will make enemies. Everyone will not like you that sadly is the world we live in. Set-up your firewall, protect your computers, and do what you are good at which I hope is transforming and changing lives. To your success!
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