Kevin Daum, Author

Kevin Daum – Guest Blogger 

During these tough times, being good or great is no longer good enough; you have to be awesome. When clients don’t sign with your company, there must be a reason they didn’t choose you. Sure, we’ll cover it by saying things like…“It’s the economy.”  Or “Their situation changed,” but they did move forward with somebody right?! More likely you just didn’t connect in a meaningful, compelling manner and your competition did. Perhaps you didn’t know how to say the right things to the right people in the right way. Or worse, you didn’t recognize that they weren’t all that interested before investing your resources. 

Most of us in these situations show up and throw up all the reasons why people should take what we have to offer without ever considering whether or not our product, service or idea actually benefits the particular, immediate pain suffered by the prospect. Partly of course because we believe that everyone needs what we have to offer. So how can you more effectively make a memorable connection with potential clients?

Establishing Compelling Messaging is the first step to successful promotional efforts. You have to establish empathy by identifying their pain. It lets the buyer know you get them.  Then you can provide an objective solution (too early to sell them just yet). Then once they trust your understanding of their problem, you have to clearly differentiate yourself. 

• Empathy – What is the pain your business will solve? It’s not about what you want, it’s about what they need, whether it’s potential investors or customers.
• Objectivity – Why try and force yourself into a situation where your business venture clearly will not fit.  Be objective about what works and what doesn’t. 
• Differentiation – There are lots of people with smart ideas. What makes yours different and unique? Unfortunately, great service and experience aren’t true differentiators since your competitors say the same thing.

ROAR Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle

You have gone to a lot of trouble to create an awesome solution and bring it to your customer.  Don’t waste your efforts!  Approach the opportunity by making it about them and you’ll likely find a client ready to let you solve their problem.

 Kevin Daum is the Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle and the national columnist for Smart Business Magazine.  He can be found at www.KevinDaum.com

Here is my report from Chicago’s Green Festival complete with a video live from the show floor. In keeping with the spirit of the activity I did take public transportation to the event and had a much better experience than I had a few posts ago. I took the CTA Western bus to Brown Line, transferred at Belmont for Red Line to Grand then I was able to jump the free trolley the final distance to Navy Pier. About one hour total but racked up massive carbon credits for the effort.

This is my third Green Festival in the last four years and I can safely say it has not evolved much. It is still a kind of hippie-like be-in. Combination boutique mall, flea market, food court with a smattering of trade show like activity. The event lacks focus and cohesiveness which is immediately evidenced by the layout that seemed to have only a general plan which causes you to sort of meander rather than follow any kind of route through the exhibits. But it is not so large that you cannot meander around three or four times before deciding you’ve probably seen it all.

I think I am used to attending trade show exhibits at which there is more investment and hope for higher gain. This is very grass roots and the plan of most of the exhibitors seems focused on selling today rather than gathering the oh so important contact info which can be used to build a long term relationship. Since this is a consumer oriented event it might actually fare better as an outdoor street fair with a few bands. On arrival there was what seemed to be a rather long line to get in, but it actually moved fairly swiftly. Since most people had free passes obtained from one of the many promoters, the purpose of the registration was mostly to try and capture an email or snail mail address for future follow–up. Distressingly this task was accomplished by having people fill out little slips of paper which will have to be subsequently decoded and input into a database. Now since I have extensive meeting management background I would seriously suggest that this could have been more efficiently achieved with maybe two or three dozen laptops requiring people to key in their info themselves, or better yet suggesting that people do this prior to arrival then simply confirm their ID with a confirmation number or by finding their name. This would have reduced the thousands of little slips of paper and many of the thousands of free coupons that were printed off. Lastly to confirm your attendance everyone was given an equally un-eco-friendly one-use Tyvek wristband for admission. Why not a soy ink hand-stamp?

Well I set out to meet some new people as part of my challenge to meet 100 New people in 50 days and did okay. I had several casual interactions and a few meaningful interactions who qualify as New people I have met, because I spent a few minutes speaking with them and there was enough of a connection to warrant further interaction. The qualifiers include eco-friendly artist  Justin Kovac www.justinkovac.com ; author of the The Vegan Monologues, Ben Shaberman www.theveganmonologues.com ; Dan from www.afreshsqueeze.com promoting simple local green businesses; Tom Tresser the Green Party Candidate for President of the Cook County Board www.tom2010.us ; Tom Hupp of Book Publishing Company www.bookpubco.com featuring healthy and sustainable living books. So that brings me to day 27 of my challenge with 47 new people met. The others I encountered at Green Festival but whom I do not count as new people met are author Thom Hartman; Martin from Chicagoland Construction and Property Services ; Shannon from www.pivotalchicago.com ; a nice woman from Yoga Chicago and a woman from a la card discount dining deck who preferred not to have a video shout out. Those who were willing to play the game can be seen here at my Chicago Green Fest v-log or video blog report live from the show floor. Enjoy this short video production and remember as Kermit taught us, “It’s not easy being green.” At the very least reduce, reuse and recycle. All of the attendees here as well as my gentle readers are invited to network with us live the last Tuesday of every month in Chicago. Go to www.meetup.com/businesscardtobusiness/ for details

Today I met with the Arlington Heights “Connectors” in you guessed it Arlington Heights, IL, thanks to an invitation from my Blitztime buddy and SOC distributor Bob Prehn. What I know about connectors is, it was conceived of, I believe, by a woman named Fena who greeted me warmly when I arrived, though if she has another business I am not sure what it is as I did not get her business card. Same for the fellow name John who is the coordinator of this particular Arlington Heights Connectors group. I think I heard in the introductions that he is involved in financial services. Nice people. It is possible that another person named Tom might also be involved in the structure of the group but Tom only introduced himself as Tom so I am not sure what he does either so can’t give much of a shout out to him. I did gather from the conversations that the hope is to expand their “Connectors” brand regionally and beyond. So look for a Connectors Group coming soon near you.

To that end I encountered another networking buddy, financial advisor and Charter Member of our Business Card to Business Meetup Jeffery Harris who will soon be starting a Connectors Chapter in Oak Park, IL so if you are in that area keep an eye out for that networking opportunity. I also spotted my buddy Denise Netzel of Trend also a member of the Business Card to Business Meetup but we did not get a chance to speak.  

My new encounters included Ken Monroe of Display Signs and Designs who produces all manner of signage whether for Trade Shows, retail, indoor or outdoor signs, banners, large size, small size, one or one hundred. Whatever your sign needs Ken and Company will get ‘er done. Ken immediately invited me to call him today about the possibility of producing a short video featuring some examples of his work. After all it would be much easier if you could just take 30 seconds or a minute to look at what he does rather than trying to understand what he has to offer based on my typed narrative, after all a picture is worth a thousand words. You can quote me on that.

Speaking of the value of illustrated thought, I also met Ms. Elle Litwinetz provider of graphic design. Elle can help you with your branding package or the creation of any of your visual print or other graphic communication needs. A native of Maine she has washed ashore in the Midwest. I asked if she was familiar with Door County Wisconsin as people often equate the Peninsula’s nautical environs with that of Maine. Elle agreed that she had visited and that it was much like home. Those of you who are not familiar with this quaint get-a-way destination about 3.5 hours north of Chicago should take a look at www.doorcountynavigator.com where you can also enjoy a number of videos produced by me featuring the area and several of the area’s bed & breakfasts and resorts.

Since we are on a graphic theme today Hilary Schultz presented herself and her business card to me which features the intriguing words, Sort it – Scrap it – Click it – Slide it – Love it – Give it. Hillary represents Creative Memories which will as I understand it, arrange your visual material into a bound printed glossy paged book, that can be used to preserve memories and printed one-off as a keepsake or printed in quantity to be shared with a group such as your family, club, school, business or whatever. Nice idea!

The speaker of the day was Laurie Huspen President of  Valuable Resources, Co.  providing Human Resource Solutions for small and midsized companies who perhaps cannot afford a full time HR person of their own, or can benefit from some outside evaluation of their HR practices. Laurie who has a strong HR background tells a touching and compelling personal story in her presentation that illustrates why it is important to have a good PR strategy in your business. Not only to protect yourself, but also to actively demonstrate that you realize companies are made of real people; with real lives; and real concerns who are also, as her company name implies, Valuable Resources. Laurie is the author of Unveiled which documents her personal experiences as an employee with health issues from the perspective of a human resources professional. I will be suggesting that Laurie take a look at Engaging Speakers group that I blogged about earlier.

Thanks to those who took a moment to reach out and say hello and share a little of themselves with me today. Remember business cards are cheap. It is not about the ones that are thrown away – but about the ones that are kept. Meet someone today and seal the deal with a business card. I have met 42 new people in 23 days and blogged about them here.

This is to announce the beta release of our new video production service. Creating  book video trailers for authors and publishers. Examples can be found at http://www.authorsbroadcast.com including a video trailer for “Turn Your Business Card Into Business.” Please check it out and pass the word to interested friends and associates.