Business building – Finding People – Part 2

We continue looking at ways in which you can find and attract people around you – customers, staff, suppliers, referrers and collaborators.

Start a blog and link people to it

The beauty of a blog is that people can read the information you post on it and they can get a sense of who you are and where you are coming from.  I have an ordinary WordPress blog but there is nothing ordinary about the internet marketing powerhouse that lies behind it.  But I will go into that another time.  The point here is that when you connect with people you should be constantly linking them back to a place where they can get more information about you, or indeed buy something from you.  That applies to Twitter posts, Facebook conversations or business cards.

Ask for referrals

It helps to develop more front than a bus!  Don’t be shy but don’t be pushy and obnoxious either.  If you have a quality product or service, then develop a joy in telling people about it.  When the occasion warrants it, shout it from the rooftops.  Ask for referrals.  Ask your friends and ask friends of friends; ask colleagues and their friends; ask ex-co workers and their friends.  Then move onto the friends of all those friends.  Before you know it your database will accelerate and grow before your very eyes.  It will contain hundreds and soon, thousands of people who want to hear from you (or at least don’t mind hearing from you).

Have an elevator speech

In the course of any business conversation and most social conversations, people will invariably ask you what you do for a living.  You need to be able to tell them precisely what you do in a couple of sentences.  Develop an elevator speech!  It is basically who you are, what your main products or services are and always include one or two big customer benefits.  Make it sound exciting not boring.  Don’t do details and don’t start listing dot points.  Also expand your elevator speech out to 1 minute for those networking occasions where you have 1 minute to tell a group about your business. Make it sound irresistible so that people will want it and love it.  If you don’t love what you do, then no one else will.

Until next time!

Gary