In Reality You Have Two Business Cards:

When meeting others and well before you have an opportunity to offer that impressive pocket-sized work of graphic art we call a business card; they have already formed an opinion of you.  Yes, appearance and body language is assessed in our mind within seconds.  Your business card only acts to confirm or contradict this pre-established opinion.   If your image is inconsistent with who you say you are then dissonance is created in the minds of those you meet.  The result is that you have already lost credibility in their eyes diminishing the likehood of developing rapport and ultimately a worthwhile relationship.

Your Image Is A Powerful Marketing Tool:

To effectively build rapport one must communicate a clear and consistent message.  Confusion creates an obstacle to relationship building.  Be aware that your image is a powerful marketing tool. It directly helps or hinders success.  Make strategic decisions about how you dress to ensure that you communicate one consistent message. This enables others understand and trust that you are who you say you are; that you do have the potential to deliver on the business value proposition that you say you offer.  From there you can proceed to the next critical step; that of building rapport and trust.

Be Your Brand:

The most successful business people, in my experience, are literally an integral part of the brand they build.  Most importantly, they understand that their brand largely determines their personal “look”.  This may be easier said than done.  For us time-starved, harried executives, entrepreneurs and professionals, “looking the brand” may seem like another thing we have to do, among all the other things on our “to do” lists.  Yet representing your brand from the inside out can make all the difference.  It lends credibility and conveys passion and commitment around our venture.  At the end of the day, competence and credibility are key components of closing any sale or entering into any negotiation but it all starts with making a strong first impression.

You Are a Walking Business Card:

You represent a brand. Whether you’re detail oriented, creative, and artistic or a strong communicator, customers are only human and they will subconsciously judge your inside by what they see on the outside.  It’s worth it to spend a little extra time to look professional, clean, crisp and put-together.  Whether you choose cotton or cashmere, it’s all marketing material.  Getting valuable input from a Wardrobe Consultant, like that available at “Images That Suit” www.imagesthatsuit.com can make the process easy and fun.  Trained fashion specialists provide guidance on how to best build a winning wardrobe that is profession, age and style appropriate.  It will help ensure that each dollar spent on clothing is actually an investment in your success.

Your Next Biggest Client Might Be At Sobey’s:

Remember that it is important to “be your brand” both at work and play.  You never know when and where you might meet your next biggest client.  Not only should your business wardrobe reflect your brand but also your business casual and weekend wear.  Think of each dollar spent on clothing as a dollar spent on advertising.  As you keep clarifying and evolving your business brand, the nuances of how to best represent it on the outside will continue to become clearer and your image a powerful asset in building a successful business.

Give your image a performance review.  I invite you to a free wardrobe consultation.  To book a convenient time please contact me at 647-680-4536 or hjewer@cogeco.ca

I network a lot. I attend meetings both within groups and over coffee with individuals. I look for business development opportunities for my own business Executive Sales Support and also for opportunities to help my network through my expertise, or passing along opportunities I think might be a fit for others.

One of my network groups is HAPPEN in Mississauga, Halton and Peel Professional Executive Network. There are many wonderful professionals “in transition” in HAPPEN. They are a great group that offers help while they are looking themselves and also after they land. One member, in particular, who helped me through his public relations efforts, is Hugh Black from HMB Communications Group. Contact hughblack at cogeco.ca.

Within HAPPEN, conversations are around finding full time employment and within my business networking groups, the conversations are around finding new business development opportunities. Over the past months, I have noticed a difference emerging between the two groups. On one hand full time traditional employment seems to be going the way of the dinosaur and on the other hand, the members of the small business group are as busy or busier than before Christmas.

Yesterday, all the random pieces of networking came together. I had been networking with Hugh Black, putting forward my point of view that people were choosing self employment,  then the new Canadian statistics for unemployment in April 2009 showed that unemployment stayed the same and there was an increase in the self employed numbers.

As a result of Hugh Black’s efforts; I was interviewed as an example of someone who had successfully transferred their skills and started their own business,  Executive Sales Support. My business helps sales and business professionals get out of the office to see more clients and close deals. As a result of this interview, I was mentioned in an article on the front page of The Toronto Star’s Business section on Saturday May 9, 2009.

Yahoo, networking pays off for business development!

If you want to network with me I have a linked in profile. I look forward to helping you.

Here is the link to the article “Self-employment: The ‘do-it-yourself recovery’ Jobs increased last month, largely through people embracing self employment. The Toronto Star’s Business section on Saturday May 9, 2009.

Are you a sales professional or business owner, who wants to maximize your business development and triple the prospects in your sales funnel?

Every business I have ever worked with wanted to generate more prospect leads for their sales pipeline. My clients tell me this all the time. The disconnect occurs when I investigate the process used to process new prospect leads gathered at trade shows, networking events etc.

As a Sales Support Specialist, many times I find marketing is generating so many prospect leads that sales is cherry picking and choosing to follow up only the hot leads. Hot is defined by sales as leads they believe will close within the near future and contribute to this month’s target. Sales does this because they have monthly and quarterly targets to hit. Does this practice sound like what is going on at your business?

The question I asked is “What happened to the remaining cold and warm prospect leads?” Usually I find they are stacked on a desk or lost in a folder somewhere. No one is following up and talking to them. You have to wonder about lost potential.

When sales prioritizes the hot leads they are harvesting only the low hanging fruit to reach short term goals for this month’s or next quarter’s sales target. Continuing this practice plays only your A team and does not develop your farm team. How much money are you leaving on the table for the competition who offers a similar product or service and is communicating with every prospect?

To develop hot prospects for tomorrow when today’s hot prospects are gone, you need to implement a follow up strategy today. That way, you can leverage the numbers, triple the prospects in your funnel and maximize the potential business development brings to your doorstep. A follow up strategy puts in place a system to not only organize, build and manage a prospect database but also communicate and educate to build future sales. Implementing a long term follow up strategy gets those cold and warm prospects, currently lost to follow up, into the sales funnel and a chance to bake from cold through warm to hot. Hot and ready for you to close that deal tomorrow.

The result? Minimization of the feast and famine cycle you may have been experiencing in your business. By adding cold and warm prospects to your sales funnel you triple your prospects. Following up with EVERY prospect allows you to mine incremental growth and revenue that can be added on top of your current business.

Here are 5 simple things you can do today to start building your follow up strategy and a system to leverage your time and information.

• Put every business card you currently have into a database.
• Start marketing and educating about what you offer and how your solution can help solve problems.
• Insert hyperlinks directing prospects back to your website where they can find more information.
• Commit to communicating on a regular basis and ask for feedback.
• Utilize drip marketing to communicate over time.

Once you get going you can optimize your time and money by expanding your system and utilizing automation and email marketing to reach even more prospect leads.

Let’s review how your prospects are processed with a sales funnel optimization consultation. Discover the hidden road blocks that are preventing you from cashing in on the opportunities already on your doorstep.

Contact me at Cheryl [at] Executive Sales Support.com.