You Can’t Grow Unless You Show
As memorable as you are, you and your fellow 21st century earthlings live in an era when the constant bombardment of information makes it impossible to keep anything “top of mind” for very long. Here’s an example: Assuming you read it, can you remember the subject of my last blog? How about the one before that? Let’s face it, our short term memory is overcrowded. My business development strategy is a combination of blogging (obviously), public speaking, and networking (and luck). My least favorite of the mix is networking. It’s time-consuming, its results are unreliable, and it often feels like a bad blind date. I have, on several occasions, considered eliminating it from my life altogether. Certainly there have been days when, on my way to a networking lunch, I have thought to myself, “I wish I could just cancel.” Ironically, it’s usually those meetings that are the most productive.
A Course of Inaction
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I write a lot about what you can do to improve your business development. Do this. Do that. Get more clients. Grow your book of business. But this week I’m recommending a course of inaction. Because I’m finding that all of this doing comes at a heavy price. That’s not to say that a busy life has no value. I am fully dedicated to the progress and profit of my business, and to the fulfillment of a personal mission that includes helping people. But while that all sounds sensible and noble, it’s completely exhausting, and on some level, meaningless. Yesterday, I experienced something extraordinary. After learning that my lunch meeting had been cancelled, I didn’t go back to my office and work; I didn’t take the extra hour to clear out my in-box; and I didn’t wedge in a
How to Maximize Referrals
If you participate in any kind of social media, you have more “friends” now than the captain of the football team did when you were in high school. And yet, in spite of all our connections, most of us don’t harvest the many business opportunities that are available in our networks. This six-minute video will help you understand where those business opportunities originate and how to encourage more referrals from your relationships. // For more information, visit www.PracticeBoomers.com.
How to Garner Press
Last week’s edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal profiled my company and some of our business development training programs. They even put a picture of me on the front-page masthead. When I first saw it, I had mixed feelings about the article, as it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I called the LABJ and made the pitch. My initial read gave me that same uneasy feeling I have whenever I see myself on a video or hear my voice recorded on a voicemail. Perhaps you know the feeling too. It’s surreal to catch a glimpse of ourselves through someone else’s point of view. Fortunately, I had enough sense to turn to an expert for some perspective. I shared the article with Sharon Berman, whose PR firm (www.Berbay.com) specializes in service firms. She gave me a lot of great advice, including this gem: “You can control what
Build a Bigger Net
I smiled when I saw Frank’s email pop up in my inbox. The subject line read “lunch.” It had been roughly three months since he and I had seen each other, and he was building his net. When I first met Frank, his law practice was struggling. He had a lot of enthusiasm, but very few clients. “I have a database full of people with business potential,” he had told me, “but I don’t know which ones to focus on.” I suggested that he identify his Accelerators—people who had already demonstrated the capacity and willingness to help him. He made a list of seven individuals who had either referred business or made useful introductions. He agreed to visit these people every quarter so that he would stay top-of-mind. The next time I saw Frank it was almost a year later. He had met with his Accelerators regularly, found opportunities to
6 Social Media Marketing Tips
91% of the businesses in the world are using at least one of the social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube) to market their products and services. This six-minute video shows you how to use social media to market yourself more successfully in 2012. After you watch it, scroll down to learn where you can find more videos like this one. // This video lesson is part of Practice Boomers, an online program that answers the question: “What steps should I take to grow my practice effectively and efficiently?” Practice Boomers video lessons provide you with a customized roadmap to grow your book of business. Sign up for a free trial before 5pm on Monday, January 9th and receive the Social Media Prospecting video as a complimentary bonus. Click here to start your free trial.
Three Words for 2012
When it comes to New Year’s reflections, I am a fan of Chris Brogan’s “My 3 Words” approach. He discourages his readers from making resolutions, reminding us that we often break our promises to ourselves. Instead, he encourages us to identify three words that will serve as personal themes for 2012. Last year, I blogged about mine, which were “Trust,” “Follow,” and “Transparency.” I found that I referred to these concepts frequently as my business went through an important chapter in its evolution. As a result, I feel that I Trusted more (that things would work out); I Followed the advice of mentors and peers; and I practiced more Transparency in my dealings, including the posts in this blog. I wouldn’t give myself a perfect score for 2011, but adopting these touchstones made me much better off than I’ve been in the past with resolutions like “I’m going to go
How to Get Noticed in 2012
December is generally a good time to reflect back on the year and assess successes earned and lessons learned. The Ackert Advisory saw significant revenue growth in 2011, mostly because of on-line initiatives like this blog. My readership went from a few dozen to almost three thousand in just over a year. And several of my blog readers engaged me for business development coaching, speaking engagements, webinars, and membership to Practice Boomers (my e-learning program). So, to answer that question I hear so often: “Does social media really lead to much of anything?” Yes, as long as you provide content that your readers consume on a regular basis. Another question I hear often from blog readers is, “How do you come up with content every week?” Well, in the interest of encouraging you to launch your blog or improve your blog in 2012, here are three tips that helped me
Who Is Your Sales Team?
If you were in the business of making widgets, you’d have a sales team, and your survival would rely on their performance. You would educate them about your widget so that they could sell it effectively into the market. You would give them a list of prospects. You would equip them with CRM software so they could keep track of new business opportunities. And you would reward your top closers with generous bonus checks so they wouldn’t jump ship and start selling for your competitors. But in your business, you have an external sales team. You call them referral sources. And while they aren’t on payroll, they are no less critical to your survival. So take a page out of the widget-maker’s book and make sure your referral sources are educated about your services, especially the under-performers. If they’ve only referred once, or their referrals have been off-target, take them
Wait… It’s not what you think.
Somewhere in Hollywood, a screenwriter is writing that scene in which the cheating husband gets caught with his pants down and blurts out the classic line, “Honey, wait… it’s not what you think.” And yet, for all its popularity, the cliché response never seems to work. I have yet to see the scene in which the wife earnestly responds with, “Oh thank heavens! I was worried for a minute there…” So, what is it that makes us think that we can ignore our referral sources for days or even weeks when they send us an email, then excuse our non-responsiveness with a “wait, it’s not what you think” explanation about how busy we’ve been and still expect them to send us a client referral at some point? Haven’t we just communicated to them that our responses are unreliable, or at the very least, slow? I’ve been on both sides of this
