I understand that not everybody likes golfing but if you do (or are thinking of getting into it) it really is a great way to network and build relationships. If you are trying to develop a relationship with someone golf has several key advantages. Here are a couple examples...

1. Depending on who you are offering it to, an invite to a game of golf might have a better chance than an invite to a boardroom meeting.

2. Depending if you are playing 9 or 18 holes that is approximately 2-4 hours you are spending with a person to build and establish your relationship. And chances are people are hungry after a golf game so you have time to eat too!!

3. Shows people you are not all about the business and have a personal side. So don't be bringing up business on the first hole. Wait till after the drink cart.

That being said, here are a couple photos from our latest Golf Event at Cardinal Club this past Tuesday. We all had a great time and will probably do it again shortly so stay tuned for more golf events. Who wants to be on the golf committee?

Note to self. Blues are far

Great vistas if you are shooting from the blues...

Every hole was pretty impressive...

 
Par for the course...

John Hotson with another great shot straight down the fairway. (and proof we were playing from the blues)

These were the only birdies I saw :(

The should hae had the G8 here and saved on the fake lake

The man with the Plan, John Traczyk coming back for another lap...

Another great view from the blues... in retrospect my scorecard would have looked alot better from the reds

An impromtu BNI meeting on the 12th hole...

Now this is where the rubber hits the road... and good thing as it would have been a long walk.

Dinner was also incuded for the whopping $47 dollars we paid for 18 holes (althought we only played 12) and a cart rental.

Leaving the clubhouse... Couldnt have asked for a better day to play... (well except maybe not a tuesday :)

Hope to see you out there next time!!

By Cathleen Filmore

1. Define Your Value - Start With Positioning

The first question to ask is what value do you bring?  If the answer is none, it’s time to rethink the proposition. The second question to ask is whether the mission statement you created for your event REALLY conveys the value you bring. Don’t be afraid to make a big promise.  If you call your workshop ‘Present with Power’ you’ll attract people who know they need to improve their presentation skills.  But if you make a bigger promise and call it “Own the Podium” you’ll draw in a much larger group.  Who here doesn’t want to own the podium when they speak?

 2. Build Your List

Nothing is more important than building a strong loyal database that you keep in contact with. You can build lists using your website, social media and by collecting business cards and attendee information when you’re a guest speaker.

 It’s not uncommon for speakers to purchase lists. While it may be necessary to use a purchased list in the beginning, in my experience, organic lists are most effective.

 3. Find a Hungry Crowd

Now that you’ve established your topic, you must decide if there’s a crowd hungry for the value you provide. If so, you need to go where they go so you can find them. I recommend that you write a list that covers:

• Where they hang out
• What associations they belong to
• Individual influencers already in your database

 4. Determine Content and Fee and Create Promotional Material

Content: Now it’s time to create an outline that will be part of your marketing material.  The key questions to ask are 1. How will people benefit from attending?  And 2. What bonuses can you add? Consider if you have a colleague with an equally valuable message they’d be willing to share and how you could work that into to your presentation or your bonuses.

Fees: Most speakers go one of two ways with fees: Either they’re afraid to charge what they’re worth or they start out expecting exorbitant fees!  The trick to escaping this trap is to simply ask yourself how much you’d be willing to pay to attend this seminar. What price would be a deal-breaker for you? 

Promotional material: Your promotional material needs to include the following things:

• A great headline
• A stated problem
• Your unique solution
• Testimonials from other gatherings
• A call to action
• An order form

 5. Test Your Premise

Now it’s time to test your premise!  Once you’ve finalized your promotional message and material, run your idea by a few trusted colleagues for feedback before you launch. Keep an open mind and make sure you incorporate this feedback. By this time, we’re often so close to our presentation that we lose our objectivity so it’s important to pay special attention to the opinions of those around us.

 6. Find the Right Venue

The right venue can help your presentation go from good to great – especially if the venue reflects your brand or shares your values. I use Verity Club because it’s a great venue and positions the event as high end.  Also there’s no financial penalty for cancelling. Hotels can be tricky, as they often charge outrageous fees for catering and equipment and have strict cancellation policies. Another trick is to use venues that are designed for daytime events and meetings. For example, St. Andrew’s Conference Centre is an excellent venue.

 7. Sign up for Cvent.com

Cvent is a free service thtat allows you to send out an RFP to every venue in the city.  I recently targeted downtown hotels for my annual speakers showcase. It saved me hours of time because the request is sent out by simply checking off venue names and the responses are all blocked together on Cvent so you can keep track of who replied and who didn’t.  Cvent will also allow attendees to register using credit cards, and good news:  they only charge $1.00 per registration.

 8. Create a Marketing Plan, a Timeline and a Budget

Your marketing plan should cover how many people you want to attend your event and how you plan to reach them.  Create a comprehensive campaign that uses your current database, social media, flyer distribution and some guerilla marketing. 

 Next consider your timeline.  I recommend you work backwards from your end date and try to have all your registrations in a month before the event. 

 Finally, create a budget; how much will you bring in and how much will you spend to you meet your goals?

 9. Find Affiliates

This is a lucrative and often overlooked marketing tactic. Who do you know who will help you spread the word?  I find that my BNI colleagues are a good place to start, but you can go much further than that.

Surely  you have a colleague you’d be happy to cross-promote?  If your event is sponsored, your sponsors may be happy to help you promote too. Don’t overlook them.

 10. Plan the Agenda!

Always remember to prepare for the unexpected and go for it.  Have a great event! 

Cathleen Filmore owns and runs Speakers Gold Bureau.  A well-known industry expert, Cathleen has spoken at national conferences and delivers Fast Track marketing seminars for speakers. Speakers Gold holds an annual search and contest for North America’s top amateur speaker and can be contacted at www.speakersgold.com. 

By Kevin Maynard

Every small business will eventually be faced with the prospect of entering into an exchange of services.

You’ll ask yourself if you should forgo the revenue opportunity. The answer is usually “Yes”. Here’s why:

While you don’t get cash, you get services you would otherwise pay for. This reduces expenses, and in many cases enables you to take steps to improve your business which you could not otherwise afford.

Your accountant will tell you to record the transactions as revenue on both sides, and to issue credit notes. She is right – this way the amount of business you conduct is still reflected in your overall revenue totals – important for many reasons including figuring out how much work you’ve done for how much money.

The major caveat has to be – are the services offered in return services you need or want?

This is not worth doing just for the goodwill – although goodwill does factor into the decision.

To get around this, I recommend never broaching the idea of contra services unless the other partner has indicated a need for your own. It is rude and potentially sabotages relationships to discuss purchasing services, then suddenly suggesting that you will pay in kind.

“I would be open to discussing exchange of services, if that’s of interest to you.” Stick to this line as your way on introducing the concept. It ensures that both sides are willing, and don’t feel obligated to play along.

Removing that imposed obligation is critical, because it allows you to benefit from a new perceived obligation – an alliance. When a service partner has performed services for you, you will feel obligated to refer them. It’s natural, and you can speak from experience about how well they executed. You don’t get the same perceived obligation in a transaction where money changes hands – think how hard it is to get testimonials from your customers.

The trick to making a barter or contra job work for you is for it to be roughly equitable. Be up front about this for best results. “I normally charge $2500 for this – how does that compare?” If the answer is $2000  or $3000, you are in the ballpark, and this should work fine. Don’t be stingy, but don’t give away too much for free, or you will build hidden resentment.

Finally, also be up front about passing through direct charges for materials, sub-contractors etc. These are not the important parts to making this work – so don’t lose money on them and build value for your own services instead. Even if you aren’t being paid.

Kevin Maynard is a marketing strategist and president of Growth Path Strategic Marketing. To learn more about Kevin,continue to his site here.

Trust me.

Hmm… well that didn’t work. Asking for trust doesn’t usually produce the desired results. So how do you gain it? You know the answer – over time and by depth of experience and relationship. At least when you’re on your own.

Trust is also transferable. You see it on balance sheets as goodwill, exactly because it is transferable. Trust is what makes referrals work. If you trust me, and I recommend Klaus or Allyson, they gain the benefit of the trust you have in me – because you still hold me responsible for their behaviour and performance.

That transferability of trust makes networking possible. It isn’t about who you know, but who you trust. And that is a distinction that a lot of serial networkers don’t get. I fell into that trap myself. I attended BNI Corporate Exchange as a guest for six months. I got to know a lot of people – a lot of the right people. I got a small amount of opportunistic business from members who had an immediate need, as they gained familiarity. I got none from other guests. They gave all their business to the members – the people they see being trusted. That was when I recognized that there’s truth to the maxim that membership has its privileges.

The main privilege is of trust.

A healthy business networking group trades referrals from many sources – the members themselves (we call this an internal referral), their clients (external), guests, members of other network chapters (there are two other BNI corporate chapters which have close ties to Corporate Exchange), and alumni (former members). As a guest, you really only have access to the first of these, and happenstance for all the others, if you are in the right place at the right time.

Even as a member, you have to work your way up the trust cycle. All the statistics show it takes 3-6 months of association to begin to see benefits, and the trust cycle doesn’t really complete until well into the second year. In my role of chapter mentor, I’m frequently asked how to accelerate that trust cycle – because most of us aren’t that patient.

There’s good news. There are two major ways to gain trust more expediently. They both require considerable effort. The first is to meet regularly with the members of your networking group. The better you get to know each other – and your respective businesses, the easier trust flows. And repeat this as frequently as you can. I personally have about six meetings a month, just familiarizing myself with other members outside regular networking.

The second way to scoot ahead on the trust cycle, is to make visible contributions. Raise your profile within your networking group by being an integral part of it’s workings. John prints all our materials, invitations, folders etc, and everyone sees how he’s contributed. We also see the quality of his efforts. This short circuits the need for us to have to have tried out his services personally – because we’ve collectively seen his ability. He’s earned our trust. And that ultimately is what you need to do – earn the trust. The benefit is that you earn the trust of one – and you reap the benefits of trust earned by all.

So trust me – Simon does. And Marjorie does. And Fred does….

There have been some interesting shifts in behaviour over the past twenty years - especially in the business-to-business (B2B) world. The simplest way to describe the trends would be to say that a general skepticism has crept into the average business person when it comes to partners and suppliers.

Here are a few of the major trends:

1) B2B advertising has little effect other than raise brand awareness.

2) Profiles in publications or websites are viewed as advertising, or inextricably linked to advertising, and not journalism.

3) Referrals from other clients are nice, but rarely a factor in decisions.

4) Testimonials are given less credence than advertising.

I'm not out to bash B2B advertising - there are instances where it can be instrumental. It's just clear that you have to be cautious in its use, and aware of what it costs you. What I'd like to examine deeper are the last two points: referrals and testimonials.

Decent referrals generally come to you from two sources: other clients of the service/product being referred; and other suppliers or partners to you. The tendency of each business owner to view their circumstances as unique, has been the prime cause in discounting customer referrals. The perspective seems to be "It may have worked for you, but my needs are significantly different". If they listen closely enough, they may pick up on similarities of note, but frequently it doesn't get that far.

On the other hand, if I'm providing you with a service (say accounting), and recommend a lawyer, the assumption is that because I know your business well, whomever I recommend will be the best person for the situation. As well, even if it's unspoken, I will be held accountable for the suitability of the referral. If the lawyer is someone I work alongside for clients-in common, this will carry much more weight than if s/he is my lawyer. This means that the best referrors for each of us are synergistic companies, not our satisfied clients!

Testimonials have taken a big hit in an internet dominated world. In print, they still have a place, but on a website they merely take up space. The average business person assumes you a) wrote them yourself; b) got a friend to submit them; and that they are not in any way reflective of reality. Harsh! But there's hope....

If the testimonial is included in a case study, then it is given a context and subsequent weight. And to loop back to advertising and profiles, case studies are the number one thing that business people look for in newsletters and periodicals, so you might consider placing these instead of a "puff piece". Even though not viewed as impartial, that testimonial combined with the problem solving approach of a case study does get attention - and plausibility.