The Ideal Professional Network

We've all encountered people whose primary goal is to create a vast network of "contacts". They have an enormous collection of Facebook friends and they exchange business cards with everyone they meet, inviting one and all into their LinkedIn network. These folks super-size.
But what do their "contacts" actually mean to them? Do such collectors of contacts follow networking best practices and act as a resource? Would they even recognize many of their "contacts" if they ran into them at the grocery store? Too often, the answer is no.
I've had the experience of being sucked into the clutches of a super-networker or two and found that when I emailed an easy and uncomplicated question, my inquiry went unanswered. I eventually severed the associations, but I'm sure my absence is neither missed nor even noticed. Who can keep track of or maintain contact with 500 connections?
So I'm happy to report that there is data that supports my long-held gut feeling about networking. Apparently, when it comes to our network of relationships, size matters and smaller is better.
Robert Cross, Associate Professor at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce and Robert Thomas, Executive Director of the global consulting firm Accenture's Institute for High Performance, contend that the most effective networks focus on high-quality relationships, ideally with people who come from diverse levels of the corporate and/or socioeconomic hierarchy.
Cross and Thomas found that a properly functioning network consists of about 12-18 people. The ideal network provides guidance, exposes us to fresh approaches to decision-making and problem-solving, challenges us to achieve new goals and also gives us validation and encouragement.
A diversity of professional and personal interactions pays numerous dividends, socially and professionally. We get to meet and rub shoulders with those who've lived different lives and therefore have different values, perspectives and experiences. We learn how to become more flexible and resilient. Our decision-making capabilities improve because we incorporate additional information and we become better leaders and better business people.
Take a look at who you know and who you consider to be a member of your network. Who looks out for you and who do you look out for? Cross and Thomas recommend that we cultivate relationships in these categories:

• People who share or expose you to new information or expertise, e.g., giving the heads-up on happenings in your business environment. This person could be a client, or someone from the chamber of commerce or other business group.


• Peers in other industries, who can open your eyes to what other organizations consider to be best practices or smart business strategies.


• Powerful people, who can open doors, make introductions, cut through red tape, provide useful inside information and sponsoring.


• Those who know and validate your work and can provide feedback and challenge you to get better (client, peer or boss).


• Peers in a business similar to your own, but who are based in another geography, allowing you to discuss business strategy and not worry about competition.


• People who provide personal support, good friends and family you can call on when things go wrong and you need to talk.


• Outlets for spiritual and physical well-being: fitness, meditation, religion, volunteering, sports and hobbies.

As you review and perhaps revamp your network, look to include people who bring good energy, people who bring out the best in you. Build relationships with people who see opportunities and know how to reach for them. If you've been gestating an important goal you'd like to achieve, think about who in your network can help you get there? Is there someone you should reconnect with?
Most of all, remember that networking is about building and maintaining relationships, whether or not there is an immediate need to call in a favor. Reciprocity rules, so maintain contacts, reach out and reconnect to good friends and colleagues and be generous when they are in need.
Thanks for reading

3 Quick Tips for Networking and Building Relationships

In the midst of doing some business planning and strategizing, I came up with 3 Quick Tips to help you along your path to becoming successful in whatever business you are in. If you own a business and want to increase your contacts and grow your customer base, then these 3 tips should be able to help you in some way. Here we go...
Tip #1 ~ Know Who You Want To Connect With
There are many people who consider themselves to be entrepreneurs and small business owners, which means, there should be no shortage of people who you can connect with that has a business which provides some sort of service or product. However, you must consider and give much thought to what connections you want to make with each specific business owner. If you have a universal product that people from all walks of life can utilize or enjoy, then your networking opportunities are open to a very broad spectrum and you are able to connect with people from various business areas.
Example, I sell coffee and we all know that A WHOLE LOT of people drink coffee, no matter what business they are in. I also sell juniors and misses clothing, everybody wears clothes, but everyone doesn't wear juniors and misses clothes. With the coffee, I have a much wider networking base, than I would for selling clothing and here is why... A 50 year old man may buy my coffee, but he may not have any interest in buying a maxi dress in a size small. A 23 year old woman my come to me and buy clothes, and then she may see that I sell coffee too and buy both. Coffee: 2, Clothing: 1.
Tip #2 ~ Have a thorough understanding of the services you can provide
When you meet people and start networking, they will ask you what you do and some may even be as bold to ask, what can you do for me? Know what your answer will be and be willing and able to provide the answers they need. If there is something they ask that you do not know, DO NOT LIE!!! You may want to develop a relationship with this person for future business opportunities that may come your way, and if you start out your relationship with a lie, then you are setting that relationship up for failure in the long run. Take time to be knowledgeable about your area, audience or customers, terms and lingo, and your specific and unique contributions to that particular field or area. You want to appear at least somewhat knowledgable about your business. Don't wait until you meet a potential customer or future business associate to start thinking about what you do.
Tip #3 ~ Is your business life personal or have you made your personal life your business?
Social media has made almost everyone famous (who wants to be) and there is an abundance of people capitalizing off of this trend. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter makes it easy for people you may never meet to know a great deal about you, what you do, what you like, what kind of clothes you wear, what kind of hair products you use, what sports team you cheer for and even your kids names and their life. With social media, there seems to be no clear line as to where the social ends and the business begins!
If your business venture (income generating business strategy) relies on the general public knowing so much about you, then go full steam ahead, but be cautious! There are still many people with cruel intentions and your willingness to reveal 95% (or more!) of your life, and who you are, makes you a much easier target. If you want to keep your personal life and social life somewhat separate, then keep it that way. You and your business can be as separate as you want and you can still be successful. You decide what, how and when you want to share with your customers about any facet of your personal life. But remember to keep the focus of your business in mind. Intense Social Media Sharing may not work for every business, but for some it is a must!

What Does it Take to Create a Profitable Email Marketing Strategy?

An email marketing strategy is like a long-distance marathon where-in, you will need to keep sending emails for several reasons including promotion of business, to create brand value, building customer relationship, and much more. The question is how to determine what an effective email marketing strategy should comprise of? There are several elements that control the effectiveness of any email marketing strategy and depending on the customer segment you are targeting and what your expectations are, you can tweak your strategy accordingly.
One of the best places to start is by formulating and identifying your customer segment. Identifying the customer will shape the content of the emails to be sent out. If you are targeting the youth then the emails should be informal in nature, peppy, talk about the future, and basically try and catch their pulse. If the target audience is between the age of 40 and 60 years then your email strategy should stress on the emotional quotient. Work towards building long and meaningful relationships, be sensitive and caring for their need, and send them regular discount coupons or discounts.
How your project your business and the company will depend a lot on how intelligent, informative, and innovative your emails are. This is also one of the important aspects to be considered while formulating an email marketing strategy. One of the other aspects that require attention is attracting the customer. What will attract the customer? Discounts, free products or items, festive discounts, bonus products etc are some of the elements that will attract your customer. Above all, check with your competitor to get an idea of what they are offering their customers. All this will help you create a strong email marketing strategy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3048595

Making Emotional Connections With Your Brand

It is common knowledge that, as a professional and as a business owner, if you don't make an emotional connection with the other person, they will not buy anything from you. The same goes for your ability to form relationships with other people. If you can't touch them emotionally, they won't be interested in what you have to say.
The emotions make or break your success
When it comes to selling your offerings, without the element of emotion, you won't make any headway whatsoever. It is essential that you touch the person in some human way. As you are interacting with your potential client, their emotions (and yours) will be a significant factor in what they feel and in how they react to you. One hundred percent of the time, emotions are the drivers for decisions that everyone makes. It is those same emotions that will also cause the person to act on something, dictate his or her thinking, and take one person's side or another. In short, the person who is going to be doing the buying has to have some connection with you, your business, and your offerings.
The emotional reactions (and connections) themselves basically have nothing to do with logic. In fact, they are the opposite of logical. They come from the person's subconscious, not his or her conscious self. If you have developed and presented your brand properly, your target audience will want to buy what you are selling even if they don't know why. People always buy based on a feeling. If a person sees or hears about a product and it invokes a particular positive emotion, he or she will probably buy it. If a business can make a person feel something, that business can sell anything. The sky is the limit.
The essential brand
The world is full of products that someone feels he or she can't live without. That concept is exactly why businesses are successful. The reasons that brands (any brands) sell is because they make people feel a certain way. The particular brand may bring the person back to an earlier time, a time when the person was really happy for one reason or another. Those feelings leave the person wanting more of those feelings. If you can invoke that, you will be very successful.
If you can make your concepts surrounding your business resonate with your target audience, they will respond favorably to you and you have a good chance of their buying what you are selling. You need to appeal to the person on a very deep yet very basic level. There are many different ways that you can make emotional connections with your target audience.

• Your choice of words need to touch other people in a deeper way than merely showing them what your offerings can do from a functionality, benefits, and features perspective. You need to offer them your story and you need to make it clear where your passions lie and what you represent.


• Include others in what you are doing and in what you believe in. It is critical that your content is compelling, exciting, and valuable. You should make sure that your content is genuine and informative. Also, it should give the reader a clear message that you have the ability to solve his or her problems.


• Remain dedicated to your philosophy no matter what happens. It is critical to your success to do so. If you believe in what you are doing, other people will too.

Conclusion
With the amount of stiff competition that you have in your niche or industry, integrity is more important than ever. Make sure to always be genuine and helpful. If you are clear about being driven by the desire to help the other person before you even consider doing something for yourself or your business, it will come through and it will work to your advantage. Remember to always tell your story. People will relate to it and respect you for it. There are many different ways that you can connect emotionally with your professional connections. Each one is unique but each one links you to the other person on a deep level.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.
His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8413917

How to Make Sales From Your Product Pages

One of the things all business owners and entrepreneurs want to know is how can you make more money with the things you're already doing, with things you have already developed and used.
One easy way to do that is to reuse and repurpose what you're already doing.
Well, there are some amazingly easy things you can do to add income almost automatically and instantly that you may have never thought of before.
If you have products, if you're an information marketer, and you sell products online, that people can then go download, from a webpage where they can watch or download your product, you should be asking them, on those pages, to invest in the next logical thing in your funnel.
It can be simple and pretty low-key. You just say something like hey, people who bought this product, the product you're downloading, or watching or listening to - the you're consuming right now, also invested in "the next thing you recommend" and have a link there for them to now go to the next place.
What's the next logical step after they've invested in whatever it is that they're consuming right now? It's logical, right? It makes sense.
If you aren't putting links there now you're leaving easy money on the table.
You use email sequences, you try to sell people via email and other ways, so are you also doing that in the more obvious places? - like the download page.
If you're not, it's pretty easy to go add that to the page somewhere.
You're simply suggesting the next logical thing for them. The next thing they need to succeed.
Amazon does it, right?
It's similar to the one-time only up sell, only it's there and you have multiple chances for them to buy, without you being pushy or really trying very hard to sell them. Think about this... if your client goes back to your website two or three times to consume your product, or to download the product, which most people are going to do because it will take more than one time to download or consume the course, you get multiple chances for them to say yes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8419916