The best minute of your business life or getting a brilliant networking sixty seconds

Many networking groups give their members and visitors just sixty seconds to put themselves across. So how do you make the most of this VERY short time to do what's also known as the elevator pitch on the basis that if you met your best prospect in a lift how would you get your message over in the time it would take to get to the 6th floor?


Some points to consider from my experience of good and bad pitches;

• Be passionate and enthusiastic about your business
• Smile
• Make good eye contact with everyone in the room, although don’t just rotate your head from side to side
• Humour can work well, if you can build it in naturall
• Be clear about your USP
• Use props
• The word "help" is very powerful - "I would like your help to find new clients..."
• The word "imagine" is very powerful - "Imagine you are facing a new business challenge..."
• Remember your VITAL call to action - "This week I am looking for.."
• Plan your elevator pitch rather than making it up on the spot
• Vary your pitches each time you deliver
• Facts tell, stories sell

Some years ago I attended a one day networking conference and got some inspiration for structuring my 60 seconds in the form of two suggested templates which might be helpful to you:

Hello my name is...
I help people...
And this is really good for them because...
I did this with (success story)...
Which went really well because...
So this week I would like to speak to ... and I want you to say...to them

OR

My name is...
I work with...
Who have a problem with...
Because what I do is...
Which helps them...
For example (success story)...
The person I would like to speak to is ...as I want you to say...to them

When we stand up and deliver our elevator pitch we sometimes forget that communication is a two way process. In fact it is a flawed process since one study concluded that:

• we hear half of what is said
• we listen to half of what we hear
• we understand half of that
• we believe half of that
• and remember only half of that!

...hence the reason why you need to explain yourself clearly when you rely heavily on word of mouth recommendation. Think of your networking time as a relay race with your 60 seconds being the baton that passes from you to a group member and from that member to their contacts. The better your pitch the easier it will be for others to spread the word on your behalf.

Leadership and communication

Communication, like charity, must begin at home.

All communication should flow uninterrupted around an organisation, like blood through the body. If the flow is blocked, damage soon occurs. CEOs today must lead through more personal and direct communication to harness both internal and external support and turn their vision into reality.

I think it is necessary to radically rethink how the CEO educates and enthuses their organisation with their vision. The CEO must remember that leaders empower their followers, that every one of their employees is their ambassador. They must also be aware that their reputation can make or break the reputation of their organisation and that there is usually a gap between perceptions and reality!

For me these quotes sum it all up;

“It is hard to look up to a leader who just keeps his ear to the ground”

“Leaders have a vision of a better future, they feel strongly about the need to go there”

“There go my people. I must find out where they are going, so that I can lead them there”

This all revolves around the basic belief that companies must put their people, not their customers, first. Leadership is doing the right things and management is doing things right!
Leadership is about impact and impact can only be achieved by communicating effectively and by moulding a positive image. In my view good communication is about;

• Shaping and influencing opinion
• Sharing information and views
• Inspiring and re-assuring
• Being honest and transparent
• Building trust and co-operation
• Listening, listening and listening…

Please add to, improve or comment on this list.

A NEW New Years Resolution

As the 9th January is meant to be the day most people in the UK break their New Years resolution I thought that the 10th was a good day to suggest a fresh resolution. “Develop a sound social media strategy”.

Slowly but surely I am starting to understand how important it is for me to get involved with social media marketing. If you are like me and want to manage your online presence all by yourself, and you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe this blog can help you stick to your shinny new resolution.

Start with the – “Why?”

Many people get into social media for the wrong reason and participate in the networks they joined too much or too little. Now’s a great time to really give some thought to why you are involved in the social networks you are involved in. Having clarity in the “Why?” is the first step in getting yourself organised and on track. Here’s a few ideas to help you answer the question.

• Are you involved with social media to boost your ego? Do you collect followers, connections, and Likes solely so you can tell your friends about the numbers you’ve amassed?
• Do you really want to engage with the people you’ve connected with, or do you just want to promote yourself or your product all the time?
• Did you join a particular social network just because “Everyone I know is on …?”
• Are you prepared to put in the time necessary to accomplish your social media marketing goals consistently throughout 2012?

The answers to these questions are important and will help you form your social media marketing strategy for 2012. Businesses and business people, wanting to succeed in the world as it is today, must WANT to connect. You must WANT to connect with you current clients, customers and prospects if you want to be a successful social marketer. These are the people who will help your business grow. Now, when I say “connect,” I mean really engaging in conversations with people instead of pummeling them with promotions for your product or service. I mean adding value to people’s lives on a regular basis with your posts ( like this one?! ). I mean working hard to build lasting online relationships with your connections so they trust and respect you.

If you don’t consistently provide your connections with valuable content you and your business will be forgotten. If you over do it and post too much people will get irritated and stop following you. The key to a successful social media strategy is the same key to a happy and healthy life: Balance.

Whether you are a small business or a BIG company your commitment to social networking should be consistent, compelling and engaging. The social community is a fickle one. They will follow someone who is consistent, compelling and engaging, but once you slip up, they’re gone, never to return.

Developing a social networking schedule you can handle, must also keep you accountable. Again, the goal is consistency. Build your schedule and stick with it for an entire month. At the end of the month, stop and evaluate your efforts to determine if you are still on goal. Do you need to tweak the schedule? Do you need to get involved in more social networks or less?

Here’s my New Years resolution social media marketing schedule. You can use my schedule to generate ideas that will help you create your own schedule to meet your needs and the needs of your social communities, accomplish your goals, and fit your particular business and work style.

I will…

Two times a day

• Check my Twitter feed. Reply when required and check the keywords I am looking for. Join a conversation or two.
• Check my LinkedIn profile and visit some of the Groups I am in. I will engage with my LinkedIn network in some way twice a day, every day.
• Check my Facebook Page and post something of value or respond to comments.
• Check my Google Alerts for information on your competitors and mentions of your own brand. Actually I have not really got to grips with Google Alerts so this is more a must learn how to resolution!

Once A Week

• Work on Twitter and Facebook Lists to be better organised so I am able to send targeted marketing messages when appropriate.
• Really spend some time in LinkedIn Answers and discussions in the Groups I belong to.
• Schedule tweets and status updates for the next week so I am consistently providing myr connections with “valuable” information.
• Spend some time building relationships with other influencers.
• Keep up to date on new products and social tools that may increase my efficiency and reach.

During the Week

Monday
Schedule tweets and status updates to provide meaningful content in addition to the content I scheduled in my once a week session.

Mondays and Wednesdays
Get involved in an industry specific conversation on Twitter.

Tuesdays
Respond to blog comments on my blog and leave a comment or two on another blog. Remember what I said about building trust and credibility!

Fridays
Check on the things I’ve been listening to. This would also be a good day to take a look at my analytics and analyse my website and blog traffic for the week.

I’m sure that your schedule is likely to be very different from this one. Consider your time commitments. Make the schedule something you will really do every week, stick to your NEW New Years resolution. Tweak the schedule along the way but remember that consistency is key.

Please share some of your own ideas in the comments.

The good news for 2012

Following on nicely from my last blog. I have been lucky enough to meet a number of interesting and stimulating people in course of my work. Some of whom have become my friend. Once such friend is John Hollands. He runs a small marketing company in Littlehampton, RWP. He always has sound advice and creative ideas. I'd like to share this e-mail he sent me. I think you will agree it made for a good read on a Sunday morning.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and managed to use the break to get some rest and recreation. I was ill for a couple of days (like quite a few people by the sounds of it) and this gave me some time to do a little reading. The first thing that struck me was how negative the news is, not only did it seem to be quite a violent period of time over Christmas but how down everyone was on the economy.

Here’s the funny thing. Our clients and almost all of the business owners I know are quietly confident and upbeat about business in 2012. So how can they be down on the economy yet up about their own prospects. Who knows? – I thought I would do some digging. Can it all be negative?

Headline 1 - Double dip and depression on the horizon. Well, if you define a depression as a prolonged period in which output lies below its previous peak, then the USA, UK and many other European countries are already in one. Doesn’t seem too bad does it? It's just a label.

Headline 2 - Unemployment hits new high. True - 14th December 2011 UK unemployment increases to 2.64m but there are two points to mention.
a) That’s 8.3% of the population. So 92.2% of the UK population is still in work, still has money to spend and in fact more disposable income due to the record low interest rates (despite the inflation rate and rising costs).
b) The rate of increase in the jobless total is very much slowing down.

Headline 3 - The break up of the eurozone will cause the collapse of Europe, a deep depression across the continent, British businesses will suffer and jobs would be lost. The eurozone is Britain’s largest trading partner. etc etc - Nick Clegg suggests "millions of livelihoods at risk".

I had a look at this and here are the facts.

• The eurozone countries account for 43% of our imports and 47% of our exports. Our exports account for 27% of GDP. So roughly only 13% of our economy is dependent on exporting stuff to the eurozone. 
• Maybe luckily; Britain doesn't make many things that people buy in the shops these days. What we do do is weapons, pharmaceuticals and oil and petroleum products followed by business and legal services, financial services, design and consultancy. (Plus Scotch whiskey and Japanese cars) So realistically some of these sectors would continue to do OK even if a deep depression leads to a 5%-10% drop in GDP. - Not quite a collapse is it?

A collapse of the euro could mean that currencies will need to be re-established and the only place with that kind of expertise is the city. Lawyers will be redrafting contracts and filing writs, consultants will be working overtime. American, Japanese and Korean firms may relocate here to escape an unstable eurozone and of course British firms could snap up assets across Europe at bargain prices. The more I think about it the brighter this outcome could be.

So enough about the economy. Where then do we stand from a marketing point of view? We have been advising our clients to

1. Keep their current customers as close as possible. Try a simple phone call. 
2. Add more value. Don't discount - give that little bit extra, people are spending but they are looking for good value. 
3. Look at what is working and do more of that. 
4. Find what is not working very well and stop it.

Good luck for 2012. If you need some advice send me an email. If you like my email send me an email.

( If you want to take him up on his offer his website is http://www.rwpgroup.com/  I have not included his e-mail address in case of spams)

Fundraising in hard times

As bad as this economic downturn has been for us all, chairites who survive will have learned lessons that will prove invaluable later, whether times are good or times are bad. Here are some tips I have collected over the past few years.

I’d be interested in hearing your experiences.

Which ones have you tried?

Can you add to the list?

1. Don't become or sound desperate.Instead, emphasise to your donors that every year, good or bad, your needs continue. Don't talk about grand plans for expansion, but do talk about solid plans for today. Don't lose your enthusiasm and optimism about your cause. Donors will notice and pull back if they think that you, the fundraiser, have doubts.
2. Prove that you are responsible. Let your donors know that you are doing your part by being financially responsible. Cut costs where you can, make sure you have good controls in place, and that you are examining marginal programs. Keep your money safe and avoid risky investments. Don’t do an Iceland!
3. Don't give up on your corporate and cause-marketing activities. Gifts may decrease, but keep your corporate contacts strong. It is very hard to get back on the corporate charitable list if you are dropped. Avoid this by staying visible, and keep cultivating your contacts within the company. Likewise, don't give up on cause-related marketing. Companies are finding that these activities pay off for them with consumer loyalty. Remember too that just because a company's stock price has been depressed doesn't mean that it is not a strong company. Look at the balance sheet to identify companies that are in a good position, and that will likely come back strong from the economic meltdown.
4. Diversify your funding sources by identifying all types of financial support. Avoid depending on one or two major donors or trusts. Most charitable giving is made up of small donations. If you are not doing direct mail to a large base of supporters, start working toward doing so. Use the Internet to reach more people. The cost is low so that donations can be smaller. Those add up quickly. Explore payment options with low transaction costs and online donation sites.
5. Put your fundraising programs under the microscope. Determine which fundraising programs work best and are the most efficient in terms of resources. Then cut the least efficient ones and shift those resources to the ones that are doing the most good. Maybe that big special event eats up precious time and resources for very little return. Or the promotion you started last year just doesn't seem worth the time and effort. But, don't let the money and volunteer time you use in those efforts just dissipate. Put them to use by expanding the annual campaign or making more major donor calls or doing another planned giving seminar.
6. Don't pull the plug on major campaigns, but do slow down. If you were starting a capital campaign when the economic crisis hit, don't stop. But do slow down. Recognise that getting those lead gifts in the size you want will take longer and be dependent on how the economy is doing. If you ask for a multi-year gift, and the donor resists, fall back to asking for part of that gift now, and plan to go back later for the rest. Donors are understandably shy about making long-term commitments in this economic environment.
7. Keep up your marketing and PR. Building buzz about your good work will help you with your donors. The more they know and see your name about, the more likely they are to contribute to your cause. Got PR professionals on your board or committees? Seek their advice before you launch anything big. Let them organize a PR/Marketing Committee that might bring in other professionals to help. See if their firms can do pro bono work or work at a discount. This kind of help is really priceless.

What dose 2012 hold for the chairty sector?

I was signposted to this excellent article by a twitter from Jenny Warner of Charisma Charity Recruitment.

Jane Arnott - acting head of advisory and consulting, Charities Aid Foundation
Commercial: The combination of public sector funding cuts and social investment opportunities will require charities to think in a more commercial way in terms of how they can generate revenue beyond their traditional income streams. Good business skills will be important in 2012 - having an understanding of your market, being able to generate income, developing a strong business discipline so that you're making decisions based on evidence and a clear plan for the future will all be essential. For example, charities will need to think about how can they sell their services or expertise to generate revenue, whether they can make money from their premises or intellectual capital etc.
It requires a more commercial mindset and strong management information to help you understand your costs and where you can maximise value. Social investment: Based on the trends we've seen evolving in the past year, 2012 will see lots of charities looking to diversify their income streams. It's going to be fascinating to see how the social investment space develops - there's a lot of interest in it, but our experience with CAF Venturesome and other projects is that many organisations aren't 'investment ready'. There needs to be a lot more support to get charities geared up to manage debt financing and the income generation required to repay loans. However, our experience also shows that social investment can be really effective in supporting organisations to make a step change.

Diana Mackie - PR manager, Institute of Fundraising (IoF)
Bureaucracy: As a sector, charities have been trying to battle with the red tape that often restricts efficiency and slows processes. 2012 will see a review of the Charities Act 2006. As part of the review the IoF would like to see it made as easy as possible for charities to raise money without compromising trust. It would also be great to see some of the current barriers to successful fundraising, such as unduly complicated solicitation statements, removed.

The basics: New technology will enable a range of fundraising trends in 2012; online giving is rightly a focus but it's important not to lose sight of the basics involved in raising money. Key areas include: consistent communication of your charity's brand, excellent donor care processes and an investment in individual fundraisers' training and development to ensure practitioners are up to speed with the rapidly changing public sector landscape. Ultimately, online is just one channel a charity can use to communicate and raise money. Direct marketing, for example, still remains a useful tool for many charities, as does the traditional donor newsletter (either in hard copy or distributed electronically).

Rosie Chapman - co-founder, Belinda Pratten and Rosie Chapman Associates
Skills mix: The CFDG/PKF risk survey highlighted the following problems in 2011: most respondents (73%) reported greater competition in service provision; 54% said the need for their services has increased; 50% that their costs have increased as a direct result of changes in public policy. Against this backdrop, 41% of charities have not been able to maintain the required levels of investment this year to sustain them in the future and 49% have utilised their reserves to some extent. There are mixed perceptions of how well-equipped trustee boards are to manage new risks - perhaps a good starting point to help this would be for charity boards to discuss their skills mix and identify any gaps. Impact: Impact measurement and reporting will be big themes in 2012. This is partly funder driven, for example, Catalyst Gateway is moving from an input (budget driven) to an outcome funded (paid on the agreement of achieving clear outcomes) model. The recent risk survey (mentioned above) also showed that 53% of charities have experienced increased demand from stakeholders to demonstrate their performance.

Collaboration: Austerity Britain means there will be a continuing trend towards more collaborative working. Some leading national charities, for example, that have federated structures are looking to see whether they should expand their criteria to enable new and different types of organisations to join.

Roberto Kusabbi - community and social media manager, British Heart Foundation
Evolution: The evolution of Facebook and Twitter, and the impact that has on how we engage with users, will become a lot more sophisticated. We're past the stage of knowing it's important - understanding the data and how these spaces plug into existing content/sites will become more prevalent. 2012 should see some much better examples of practice and monetisation will be explored much more. The JustGiving Facebook application, for example, already allows users to donate without leaving Facebook.

Data: Data is certainly one of my trends to watch for 2012. Being able to interrogate the data we have and make decisions that help our organisations will become even more important. In a time when there is more data available than ever before, it's important not to just collect it, but to do something with it and understand it. We did a very small but very useful exercise at the BHF using Facebook data to help us drive our strategy on the platform. This is just one example of using data we already have to help make us more efficient and targetted.

Mobile. Mobile. Mobile: In terms of fundraising, the interesting spaces to watch are mobile and mobile giving. This should not just be an application for the sake of an application, but a better understanding of the platform and what it can do for donations and awareness is required. Near field technology, which allows you to pay for goods on your mobile, will start to play a much bigger part in our lives in 2012. What this means for charities is interesting; will more people donate or pay for events via their mobiles? Could it branch out into a new area? This will obviously be a space for the early adopters, but one to watch in the future for sure.

Sylwia Presley - social media consultant, Voice
Ambassadors: In 2012 we will see more ambassador and blogger engagement programmes but also more involvement from local communities. Charities will discover the real power of online relationships to identify, work with and embrace the potential of their supporters.

Digital: In 2012 there might be more mature usage of digital tools, with case studies and methodology shared publicly and with a more balance approached. Digital technologies and social media tools will be used all across charities - not only for fundraising and marketing. It is really difficult for people working with digital to represent an organisation where social is not fully integrated all across various silos. More digital engagement can save costs on travel and meetings, moving towards online collaboration and communicating internally in a more consistent way. There is a lot of scope for people who are willing to invest time and skills in those areas. As we enter online conversations, we need to ensure that we operate faster, are able to respond to real-time events and that we have the policies and processes to do so.

Jenny Lowthrop - blogger,
Volunteer Addict Mistakes: With regards to impact measurement and reporting, this talks about NGOs admitting failure. This is perhaps something charities aren't so good at, but it is important. We shouldn't be afraid to admit our mistakes and then take measures to change for the better, rather than carrying on down the wrong track because that is what our aims, visions and funding guidelines tell us to do.

Volunteers: There are more people available to volunteer, due to a lack of jobs, but less money and people employed to manage them. This article suggests some useful tips on trying to get over the assumed barriers - charities need to try and put more faith in the volunteers, positive encouragement and more ownership are required to make volunteers to feel a part of the charity.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.

New Years Resolution?

This is the time of year when we begin to hear a great deal about setting goals for the New Year. The thought of a fresh year with no blemishes drives many to dream of new beginnings and better performance. The sad truth is that most just talk about goals and rarely act. They are content to fantasise about what could be.

Goals without plans and daily actions are well-intended daydreams. Any of you who know me well will know that I not a great sportsman or even a sports fan. What you might not know is that one of my heroes is Sir Steve Redgrave precisely because he overcame his adversity by setting goals. Tiny ones that built up to big achievements, six Olympic medals - the famous five Golds and an often forgotten Bronze in Pairs in 1988. He was awarded the MBE, the CBE and following his success in Sydney was awarded a Knighthood in the 2001 New Years Honours List. I have heard him talk about improving his personal best by breaking it down in to ¼ or ½ second improvements which did not then sound too daunting, building up to world class achievements.

Each of us has a lifeline that we are currently moving along to our final destination. It begins at birth and ends on this earth when we draw our last breath. We have an incredible number of choices to make on the journey, but one among all of these normally defines our life. Have you chosen to live a life of default (choices made for you) or design (your choices)?

Let me ask you the question that will be the central theme for the rest of this blogg, “Are you a goal setter or a problem solver?” Most will clearly fall on one side or the other with the highest performers usually on the side of the goal setters. In reality only 2% of the world proudly claim to be goal setters and the other 99% rely on problem solving to move through their life.

Problem solvers will argue they move through life at the same pace as goal setters. The only flaw in their argument is they usually progress in the direction of the problems they solve and not in the direction that their life could have taken.

Here is an exercise that I have recently started doing at this time of year. Take out eight pieces of blank paper and title each page with one of the following words:

1. Social,
2. Physical, 
3. Spiritual, 
4. Financial, 
5. Educational, 
6. Work,
7. Family, 
8. Personal.

Under each heading, create a list of what you want to accomplish for 2012. Ask yourself the following questions as you prioritise each list:

a) What behaviours will you have to change in order to accomplish each one?
b) How committed are you to achieving the individual items on each list?
c) What will achieving each item do for you personally?
d) What roadblocks will you have to overcome to accomplish each one?
e) Who will be your accountability partner?
f) How will you celebrate each accomplishment?

This is not a unique incite, there are 52,533 books on goal setting listed on Amazon.com and 13.2 million websites! However it is not so much about the "however" as it is about the "now"!

I encourage you to set some small goals and test the water. Pick something that will force you to stretch your life beyond your current comfort zone and unconditionally commit to working on it for the next twenty days. Pay close attention to your experience at the fourteen-day mark as this is where the magic occurs. Here is where you get to make a choice because your mind will begin to “convince” you that the degree of difficulty is too great and you should opt out of the process. If you press through this sabotaging self-talk, you have the potential to gain control of your future. Then, it is simply a matter of following the directions on most shampoo bottles, “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” “Set goals, Achieve your dreams, Set more goals”.

Let me know how you get on.