Networking for Fun and Profit

I got 20+ solid leads during a two-hour networking event this week.

Sponsored by a CSI Chapter, there were about 45 table top displays from building product companies, and over two hundred attendees. The leads were generated by brief contacts in the exhibit space, in the lobby outside the meeting space, and even in line for the parking lot attendant afterwards. The leads created opportunities for follow-up phone calls or emails or generated new leads and introductions. On top of that, I got to say hello to dozens of other industry contacts to keep our relationships fresh.

You can create similarly high results at similar events. Here are five tools to make the most of networking events:

1. Know your goal: I went to the CSI event with the intent to interact with a lot of people, and I succeeded. But I may have had other purposes in mind. For example, I went to a party at a trade show for the specific purpose of meeting a potential client that I anticipated would be there.  He was, and I was able to get him to join me for a full hour at a table on the periphery of the event.

2. Be prepared for surprises: Be ready to change your goals as opportunities or circumstances arise. I was at one conference, anticipating an afternoon of glad-handing, when the conference organizer approached me and asked me to be on a panel discussion in place of someone that cancelled at the last moment. Instead of 20 1-on-1 conversations, I addressed an audience of 200. At another event, I was drafted to serve at the registration desk, and got to introduce myself to everybody at the show.

3. Ask others questions about themselves: You are itching to talk about your product or service. But start by asking others about their businesses, their families (if you have a personal relationship), or any new products/projects they have. Networking has to be a win-win situation, and your interlocutor must feel a stake in the conversation. More, his or her comments may reveal needs or opportunities that are openings to sales opportunities.

4. Get to the point: Everyone at the event is there for networking. So forget the small talk during business hours; save it for receptions and the lounge.

5. Get contact info and set up a follow-up: Carry more of your own cards than you think you will need. But be sure you know how to contact the person with whom you are speaking. Get permission to recontact the person when possible. This could be as simple as saying, "I'll send you XYZ with more info." or, "Would it be better for me to call you tomorrow or later in the week?"

To learn more about networking, sign up for this webinar offered by Ceiling and Interior System Contractors Association (CISCA):

How to Construct a Strategy for Networking at Conferences
Wednesday, March 12, 2014. 2:00p.m. ET
Free for CISCA members, $49.95 for others

Networking creates an opportunity and strategy to build and maintain relationships with current and prospective customers. Networking involves more personal commitment than company money. No matter how busy we are, we all still need to make time out of our schedule to network. It requires dedication on an individual level. This webinar will examine specific ways you can expand your network for yourself and your company.

Learning objectives:

• The Keys of Successful Networking
• Networking Etiquette: What works…. and what does not
• How social media can aid in your Networking goals
• Building and Maintaining the New Relationship by adding value

Click here to register.

Etiquette

If you are not an exhibitor at or sponsor of the event, don't be a carpetbagger. It may be a fine line, but there is a difference between doing sales and networking.

If you are networking with an exhibitor for purposes other than learning about his or her product, do it only when there is not a real prospect in or approaching the booth.

Parliamentary Procedure is a Sales Tool

Robert's Rules of Order was compiled by an engineer.

"Henry Martyn Robert was an engineering officer in the regular Army. Without warning he was asked to preside over a public meeting being held in a church in his community and realized that he did not know how. He tried anyway and his embarrassment was supreme. This event, which may seem familiar to many readers, left him determined never to attend another meeting until he knew something of parliamentary law." (Robert's Rules of Order website)

Building product salesmen, like engineers, ought to be prepared to participate in "deliberative assemblies," to use Robert's elegant phrase for meetings where a group considers and democratically decides on a course of action or policy. As Robert's found, being able to conduct a business meeting effectively is a form of service to an organization. It can also enhance an individual's reputation and afford leadership opportunities that can aid one's career.

I am reflecting on this following the recent Annual Meeting of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). A simple motion from the floor devolved into confusion that delayed the meeting and frustrated members. This would not have been the case if the meeting had been assisted by an able parliamentarian or if the members had a better understanding of the rules of order.

Rules of order are similar in function to MasterFormat's Division 01 - General Requirements; both describe administrative and procedural requirements to be followed in order to achieve a goal. Conducting a meeting is far easier than managing a construction project.

"The application of parliamentary law is the best method yet devised to enable assemblies of any size, with due regard for every member’s opinion, to arrive at the general will on the maximum number of questions of varying complexity in a minimum amount of time and under all kinds of internal climate ranging from total harmony to hardened or impassioned division of opinion." (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10th ed., Introduction, p. xlviii)

While CSI's meeting was tumultuous, the members were still able to approve the motion in question, with a substantial majority voting in the affirmative.

Familiarity with parliamentary procedures will enhance your participation in professional and trade associations and committees and in community affairs. To learn parliamentary procedures, I recommend reading Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised IN BRIEF, a clear, concise, and correct guidebook that is complete enough for use most meetings. I also recommend The A-B-C's of Parliamentary Procedures, a pamphlet that explains basic rules and is priced so that copies can be affordably provided to all members of an organization.

Roberts worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers, eventually becoming its Chief of Engineers. Among his many civil engineering works were improvements to waterways. Yet his greatest achievement was to improve the flow of group decision making and to drain the swamps of debate. It is altogether fitting that contemporary members of the construction industry follow his lead.

How NOT to comment #2

In response to Steve's recent post on why concrete is not like oatmeal, we received the following comment:

One of the most important aspects of proper concrete placement is the timely use of curing products and procedures. Effective curing is absolutely essential for surface durability

The comment was submitted by "Jared", and there was a link in the phrase "concrete placement" to a seemingly random page on a North Carolina-based contractor's site.

I have a pretty generous internal SPAM filter; I like comments on our blog, so I let a lot of obvious advertisements disguised as comments get through. This one didn't make the cut, and even if it had it would not have done the contractor any good. Here's why:

1.  The commenter was not properly named. Who is "Jared"? Is he a reliable source of concrete information? If he'd included full name, professional designations, and an email address, he would set himself up as an "expert" on the topic. As is, nothing.
2. Likewise, there was no mention of the company. Blatant comment advertising is not inherently evil (depending on the venue), but omitting the brand name eliminates any effectiveness it might have had.
3. There was NO connection between the post and the article it linked to, other than the word "concrete". For that matter, the comment didn't even address the post. This shoots your SEO attempts in the foot by associating your website with the wrong type of material. It also tells me this "Jared" person did not read the post.
4. I have no idea what the landing page it sent me to was supposed to achieve. It was a poorly designed long block of text about contractor safety. Waste of a click-through. Use designated landing pages, customized to each online campaign. 
5. The comment itself does not make an effective argument. And definitely fails to make a new one. Tell me something innovative or persuasive; that might get me to click.

Someone paid a digital marketer to write and distribute this comment. Someone wasted their money.

Tips for more effective email blasts

QUESTION:
One of our clients received a prestigious award recently. As his publicist, we prepared a press release, sent it to the appropriate editors, and posted it on the client's website.

We also wanted to share the good news with his customers, vendors, and other industry contacts. Our plan was to send an email blast to his list of contacts, using Constant Contact as our e-mail marketing service. The email was brief; a photo of our client, two short paragraphs, his logo, and some boilerplate about his firm. For those wanting more information, we included a link to the press release on his website.

Our client asked, "Shouldn't we include the text of the press release in the email?"

REPLY:
We included the full text of the press release in the emails we sent to editors. The typical editor needs to scan the entire press release, and decide on the spot whether or not to use the information. Asking an editor to open a link would slow down the process and decrease the likelihood of the copy being read.

But in this case, our email blast was for relationship-building. There is an inverse relationship between the quantity of copy in an email and the likelihood that someone will read it. The email had to be friendly in tone and to the point. We crafted the email to get the most important branding messages into a single email screen.

More, the invitation to click-through to the press release creates an opportunity for engagement that brings the reader to a greater level of commitment than would simply reading the email. In Constant Contact, we are able to track who clicks through, a feature that gives us clues as to which prospects have the most interest.

Send your marketing questions to michaelchusid@chusid.com

How NOT to comment

Commenting on blogs, forums, and networking sites is an important part of your online presence. Search engines are likely to find and index your comment, especially if it is on a well-known site, and links you post (when allowed) can send new traffic to your page. More importantly, it shows you and your company are participating in the conversation. But it is important to do it right.

Michael's recent post about white boards received a comment that looks like this:

Anonymous,  December 31, 2010 8:11 AM  

For a whiteboard that stays pure white, check out this glass marker board. Great for the corporate or classroom environment.

I went ahead and published the comment - we post almost every comment we receive, except for the most obvious Spam, but review them first - because it does fit both with the topic of the post (white boards) and the theme of our blog (building products), but this comment fails on several levels to achieve its goals.

1. This was posted by "Anonymous", which does several bad things. Most importantly, it makes me not trust it. Anything I get, via any medium, without a real and recognizable name looks immediately like spam. If it has a real human name I will at least open it, instead of automatically deleting it, but the sender only has 1-2 sentences to get my attention. But this also represents a missed opportunity. Digital marketing is as much about developing your brand as an individual as the company brand; social media is about people, so your personal reputation is what brings people to your company. Posting anonymously is like sending someone a birthday card without signing your name; they want to like you, but do not know who you are.

2. The company or product name does not appear anywhere in the post. There is an art to doing this right, because overusing either makes a comment look like an ad. I recommend following the same guidelines as for a magazine article; focus on the technology and include the name as part of your credentials ("In my work for Chusid Associates, I've found that....").

3. Clicking on the link brings you to a very busy, hard-to-read homepage. Most surfers will get there, look around for 10 seconds, and leave because they cannot find what they want. Instead this should point towards a dedicated landing page, with "Whiteboards that stay pure white!" in big, clear letters. Look for more on landing pages in an upcoming post.

4. This is not a well-written comment. Spelling and grammar are fine, but there is no sense of excitement, no sense of who this is for, no real motivation unless I was already looking for a white board that addresses this topic. That describes a very small part of the architectural market at any given time. If it had said, "See the lated improvement..." or "Learn how we made..." then you draw the much larger audience that does not currently need a white board but is curious about new products. Or better, actually respond to the post; but have an actual response, not a formulaic salutation ("I like what you said about....", not "Great post! Visit....") Also, consider an exclamation point.

I am certain this comment was placed by a automated script; probably no one at the company has ever heard of our blog (too bad for them!). There is nothing wrong with using these scripts, if you use them well. I would recommend setting the script to notify you so you can write a custom response, rather than using a canned message. Anything canned looks like spam, and eventually that will get you in trouble.

Commenting is a very controversial issue right now; there are as many views on the best way to do it as there are digital marketers, and many high-profile blogs forbid including links or have even disabled comments altogether. The general rule everyone agrees on, though, is be polite. You are a guest in someone else's home; if you cannot improve the conversation then stay quiet.