Posts Tagged ‘sales’

Beyond The Basics: Relationship Building Skills – BBCC Professional Edge Unplugged April 7, 2010 Highlights

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Lori Williams and I co-presented “Beyond The Basics:  Relationship Building Skills”  at the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce Professional Edge Unplugged on April 7, 2010 to a full room.  The discussion was exciting and it was wonderful to see how many potential business collaborators were sitting in the room and realized it as we progressed through the program.  We covered branding, referral partners and strategic alliances.   I will be presenting some of the relevant concepts in future blogs.   The Greek Isles Coney Island was a great location and the Chamber did a phenomenal job of promoting the event.  Lori and I were thrilled to be able to provide value to chamber members and help them develop and grow.  Many of the members made connections that will be very valuable in their future business that day.

Barbi Krass of Colorworks Studio, one of the attendees, had this to say about the presentation:

” Lori, Elisabeth,
I thoroughly enjoyed your workshop this morning. The presentation was very helpful in sorting out bottom lines for us all and the information was delivered in a way we could certainly relate to. “

Co-presentors at BBCC Professional Edge Unplugged, April 7, 2010

Elisabeth Garbeil and Lori Williams, Co-presentors at BBCC Professional Edge Unplugged, April 7, 2010


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Art vs. Science

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I had a conversation with a referral partner this morning who made a statement that I really enjoyed:  ”Billing is an art. You really have to know your clients.”  And it’s very true.  It’ s not so much the billing itself, but how each client will react differently to the same things.   Take the same system, but adjust it to each client and their needs.

One size never fits all when it comes to people – whether they are current clients, perspective clients or you.   The same marketing plan or business plan that works for someone else in your industry won’t work the same for you.

The science portion is the base business or marketing plan and  the art is adjusting it so that it fits for you, your clients, your prospective clients and your situation – which can change at any time as well.

The same business or marketing plan that worked for you two years ago may not fit now.   The economy has changed.  You’ve changed.  Your clients have changed and so have your prospects.   It’s always a good idea to review what you’re doing and adjust it to the current conditions on a regular basis.  And you have some great places to look right above – you, your clients, prospective clients, the economy, etc.   That’s the art of it.  It’s not just your business and marketing plans either.  This applies to your whole life.

And that’s what makes it fun.  It’s both art AND science.

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How Much Networking is Enough?

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

How much networking is enough to sustain or grow your business at the rate you desire?   This isn’t an easy question to answer because it depends on  many things.

If you really wanted to, you could go to networking events all the time, day and night.  There are more networking events than there are hours in the day.   But is all that networking really that effective?    The answer is no.  If you have no clear plan, goals or intentions, then any networking will be ineffective.  It will also not do you any good if you go to all these events and then don’t follow up in a timely fashion with the people that you meet.

So how do you choose networking events to attend?  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

  1. How good am I at social interaction and relationship building?  This actually matters far less than most people think, but it does matter.  If you hate going to networking events, for example, it won’t be effective for you.
  2. Who are my target clients?  (This is a huge topic in and of itself and key to any business.)
  3. What networking events do they go to?  Or where do they hang out?  It may be that the best networking for you isn’t a networking event at all.
  4. Who are good referral sources for my target clients?  (Many professions receive most of their clients by referral rather than direct contact.)
  5. What networking events do they go to or where do they hang out?
  6. How many networking events can I realistically attend per week and still get the actual work and follow-up from the event done.  If you don’t know how long on average it takes you to follow up after an event,  try 2 hours for every networking event and track it from there.  It’s likely to be much higher than 2 hours.

The next question is a big one  -

How few networking events can I go to and still maintain or grow my business?     The fewer events you can attend and still achieve your goals, the more you can focus on actually earning the money – whether it is you yourself doing client development or a team of salespeople.

So how much networking do you do?

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