By D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger

Continuing on with our theme of in-person networking, today I am going to share with you three more tips for building relationships by attending in-person networking events.

1. Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others
2. Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”
3. Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month

Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others

Take someone from your BNI Chapter to your Chamber of Commerce meeting and introduce them to someone in their contact sphere or introduce them to people whom you feel would be a good connection for them.  This will again increase your value and your likeability factor as well as make you an invaluable member of the business community.  You will also be helping people at the Chamber of Commerce event to broaden their contact sphere as you help to connect them to people in your BNI Chapter, for example. 

Bring your Networking Buddies with you to events but don’t hang out with them the whole time.  Visit with them, introduce them to people and then go and mingle and encourage them to do the same. 

Previously I gave the example of making a simple introduction between a Realtor and mortgage loan office.  Following is an example of how to make a much warmer personal introduction. Let’s use the same example of a Realtor but this time, provide a warm introduction.

If you are speaking with a Professional Organizer and you know that her best referral source is Realtors. You may want to introduce her to one or more of the Realtors in the room.  A possible introduction could go like this, “Lisa, hi, I know that you are a Realtor specializing in selling homes in this area.  I’d like to introduce you to my good friend Donna.  Donna is a Professional Organizer and she specializes in helping to increase the value of homes with her Home Staging Services.  I thought that the two of you might enjoy meeting one another for a possible mutually beneficial relationship.”  This can increase the services that the Realtor offers to her clients and this can create a great alliance between these two professionals. 

Again, you increase your value and what you offer to the community and you are deepening your relationships.  As an additional benefit to you, you will become more easily referrable as you will be on their radar and thus you’ll be able to grow your business.

 Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”

Rather than saying, “Hi, my name is so and so and this is the name of of my business and I do this, that and the other thing and we have great stuff and you should go to our website and buy our stuff.”  First of all, people will tune you out.  This is a situation where the “less is more” factor comes into play.  Rather than telling them everything that you do, share with them something that causes them to say, “Tell me more”.

I’d like to share a story with you told to me by my very good friend Sasha.  She was at a luncheon for Financial Planners and being the conversationalist that she is, she turned to the person to the right of her and asked them, “what do you do?”  That person went on to tell her all about their financial planner services in great detail.  Next, Sasha turned to her left and asked, “what do you do?”  This person said, “I show people how to get their children to buy them an island”. 

Which person would you be more inclined to ask to tell you more?  So, what can you say to get people to ask you to tell them more?  You may want to practice on a few friends and let them know that you are working on your 30 second commercial and that your goal is to get people to ask you to tell them more.  Ask them if they would listen to what you’ve come up with and then give you their honest feedback.

  Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month

Select two or three people that you’d like to get to know better and schedule a time to meet with them over the next few weeks.  It’s a best practice to meet with at least one person a week, outside of networking events.  Some people make it a practice to meet with several people a week for coffee or over lunch.  People may not have their calendar with them, so set a tentative date and find out the best way to reach them to confirm that you both have the appointment in your calendars.  You don’t want to leave it up to chance with a note on the back of a business card as it might not make it into their calendar.  Ask them what the best way to reach them is.  You can say, “If I send you an emai confirming our appointment, will you be able to get back to me or would it be better if I call you? 

These days many people prefer email as they can get to it when they have a moment, it’s right there next to their calendar and it’s easy to reply back to you.  When you do go out with them, don’t use that time to give a sales pitch, use this as a time to get to know them and find out about their hobbies. This will strengthen that relationship.  This is also a great way for you to get ideas for who you can introduce them to in your network.  This increases your likeability factor and the value you are adding to the relationship.

I hope that the seven tips I shared over the course of this week, were helpful to you. Please feel free to leave a comment, share an idea or ask any questions. Consider taking one thing that you learned and putting into action within one week. I’d love to hear about your results.

Here’s to your success!  Happy Networing!

D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger

M.Ed and Relationship Marketing Wizard
www.RealtionshipMarketingCafe.com

A warm thank you to Reno for allowing me to be a guest blogger on your site this week. This is week two in my summer Blog World Tour and I am honored to be able to include Reno’s blog as a premier destination on this journey.

Earlier this week I shared with you a few tips regarding the power of utilizing your business card as a networking tool.  Today I would like to share three more in-person networking strategies with you.

1. Arrive Early and Stay Late
2. Mingle, Reach Out, and Circulate
3. Listen More Than You Speak

To develop a well-rounded networking strategy, you will want to participate in in-person networking. In-person networking allows you the opportunity to be able to quickly connect with people. I’d venture to say that you’ve heard it said, people want to do business with people whom they know, like and trust. Let’s explore a few effective strategies for developing your “know, like and trust”  factor through in person networking

 1. Arrive Early and Stay Late

Arriving early allows you to connect with the organizers, the movers and shakers and greet people as they come through the door. You become familiar to them, because if you do this over time, you will become a known entity and a familiar face to people. You will also be able to build relationships by helping others build relationships. As people arrive, since you know who is already there, you can help make introductions. Let’s say that a Realtor walks through the door and you know that there is already a mortgage loan officer in the room and you think that there might be some good synergy there. That could turn into a good alliance and both of these people will be grateful to you for making this connection.

The reason to stay late is that you’ll get to network with the people who stay late. You’ll also become known to the chamber of commerce officers or the hosting organization as a person who gives and a person who can be counted on. In time, they may want to feature you in their newsletter, ask you to serve on a committee, or even have you as a guest speaker, which will put you in front of even more people. You become known as a go-to person, a person who networks and a person who is serious about their business.

 2. Mingle, Reach Out, and Circulate

When you attend networking events, focus on networking, mingling, and getting to know people. What you don’t want to do is spend the bulk of the time sitting and chatting with people whom you work with. If you arrive at the event with colleagues, make a plan with them to get to know new people and compare notes afterwards. You are there to network and meet other people. If you find yourself squirreled up in the corner with people whom you know, find a way to extract yourself so that you can mingle and meet new people.

When you are networking with new people there are a few things to consider. It is best to connect with fewer people and go deeper than it is to connect with more people on a surface level.

If you find yourself speaking with someone and there seems to be a good connection and you get a sense that continuing the conversation would be a good use of time, spend more time with that person. However, you don’t want to keep him or her from connecting with other people. You may want to check in with this new contact to see if he or she would like to continue the conversation or would prefer to circulate and perhaps get together for lunch or coffee later in the week. At that time you can take the relationship to the next level.

If you are in a group of two or three people and they are gossiping or speaking negatively or for whatever reason you don’t feel that there is good synergy, find a reason to extract yourself. You can simply say, “I’ve enjoyed our conversation. I’m going to go mingle; let’s connect up later.”  Then just politely remove yourself and find another group to connect with.

 3. Listen More Than You Speak

When you connect with someone, you don’t want to start the conversation telling them all about you and your products and then give them your card and tell them to visit your Web site. That person will throw your card away. Instead, when you connect with someone, ask them to tell you about themselves. You can say, “So, tell me about your business? Have you been in town a long time? Aside from business, what do you enjoy doing? If you could do anything with your time, what would you do?”  Find out about them because you might be able to make a connection for them. If, for example, they tell you that they love boating or sky-diving and you know someone on the other side of the room that shares the same passion, you can make a wonderful introduction. Then you’ll become known as a connector and this will be another way for you to add value. This will also deepen your relationships with these people because they will realize that you are not all about business but that you are also very committed to building relationships. Increase your likeability factor and become known as a person of value before you try to “get” business from your network. It’s more important to sell your network on you than on your product.

 Stay tuned as later this week I share three more in-person networking tips. Thank you Reno for having me as a guest blogger on your site and for participating in the Blog World Tour.

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed.
Relationship Marketing Wizard
Join us on the Blog World Tour at – www.BlogWorldTour.com/blog

by D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger

Networking can be one of the most powerful marketing strategies for growing your business.  I’d like to talk about utilizing your business card as one of your primary networking tools. Reno has an emphasis on face-to-face networking and in his book, Turn Your Business Card Into Business, suggests that you be sure everyone you meet gets a business card. I’d like to share with you some tips for utilizing your business card as a networking tool.

The following  is an excerpt from D’vorah’s Newest book, Connect, Communicate & Profit

There are a number of fabulous printing services where you can design your business cards online and they are very affordable even free.  But be careful of the free business card offer, even though that might be tempting.  Some of the free services will imprint their company name on the reverse, blank side of your card. What kind of image will you portray if someone flips over your business card and sees the Free Business Cards by VistaPrint or whoever, on your card?  This might make it seem that you are not a viable business, that you are not successful, or worse yet that you are too cheap to make the small investment of buying business cards for your company. Be sure this is not the price you are paying to have free cards or even better, spend the $29 or so and get yourself a nice set of professional looking business cards.  You may want to put some text on the back of the card such as a quote or a call to action; however I do recommend leaving at least some white space on the back of the card so that people can take notes and thus remember more about you.  This is why I further suggest that you do not laminate the back of your cards.  Two sided laminated cards are very difficult to write on. Just opt for the glossy finish on the printed front side.

Let’s talk about what you would write on the back of the business cards of the people you are meeting.  One thing that I always do is ask them when their birthday is as I like to send out birthday cards.  Another thing that you can do is, when you are done speaking with them is to jot down notes based on your conversation.  You can make note of any comments they made about their business, their contacts, their hobbies or their family.  The more time you spend with fewer people, the more you are going to remember about each person.  Let’s say that you collect 20 business cards at an event, you are not going to remember all of those people.  This is also a reason for why to collect the cards of only the people who you personally met with versus going over to the materials table and picking up the business card of everyone who attended the event.  The exception would be if you pick up a few cards of people whom you’d like to be introduced to or who have a business that you’d like to find out more about.  What you don’t want to do is add people to your email list or start to market to them without their permission.

The other thing about business cards is, you don’t want to be known as the person who sows business card as you walk around the room, interrupting groups of people, randomly handing people your business card without stopping to speak with them.  Those cards will go into the garbage can.  You are better off collecting cards of people who you speak with and have spent time connecting with.  This is where the “less is more” theory comes into play as you don’t want to just collect pieces of paper and try to follow up with people you haven’t built a relationship with. 

It’s a good practice to have your website, contact number and email address clearly listed on your card.  For networking events, it is an excellent idea to have your photo on your card.  When people get home and go through the business cards that they’ve collected, you want to be memorable to them.  Having your photo on your card facilitates this and will make it easier for people to remember who you are.

The next step, once you have all of these business cards, is to follow up with the people you just spent time getting to know.  You can pop them an email, give them a phone call or follow up with a greeting card.  The service that I use and recommend is called SendOutCards.  This is an online service that allows you to automate your card sending.  These are real cards that go in the mail with a stamp.  They allow you to send out a few cards for free, you can check them out at KeepInTouchKeepInMind.com

 How would you feel about the person you met at a networking event who took the time to send you a heartfelt card, through the mail?  You want to be that person, the one who goes the extra mile to build relationships.

D’vorah Lansky, Relationship Marketing Wizard, Author, Speaker, Educator.
www.RelationshipMarketingCafe.com
www.KeepInTouchKeepInMind.com

By Susan Levin – Guest Blogger 

I have found that networking is by far one of the most effective ways that I have garnered business. The Federal Bureau of Labor published a study a few years back that showed 70% of all new business comes from some form of networking

 I would say that 65% of my business comes from my relentless networking. After all marketing your services is about building relationships. People like to do business with people they know and feel comfortable with. 

If you think you are not great at networking you are not alone.  It is not a skill we are born with but can be learned. 

One of the challenges in networking is being able to say what you do in 1 minute or less. It might be called your round robin or your elevator speech.  It is about how you solve a problem or how to help people. Here’s my elevator speech.  Are you an expert in your field with lots of information to pass along? Have using speaking as a part of your marketing plan? I am Susan Levin owner of Speaker Services and I have assisted hundreds of professionals and authors in growing their business and income through speaking.  May I assist you?

 Here are some tips for successful networking that have worked for me: 

- Networking isn’t selling, marketing or cold calling. It’s the development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships.

- Take volunteer positions with organizations that are relevant to your industry. Be a visible leader to whom others can come to for help

- If you are interested in getting to know someone better ask if you can meet for coffee to learn more about their business.

- Become known as a powerful resource for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.

- Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given.

When I started my current business Speaker Services in 1992 the first thing I did was to join a network group. I really had no idea how it worked and was pleasantly surprised that it was a great way to connect with people and see how we could support one another.

Susan Levin is the owner and founder of SpeakerServices.com.  She is an international marketing coach for speakers and authors.  Her company brings speakers together with audiences and offers speaker training and video production.  susan@speakerservices.com

The surest way to grow your business is by expanding your network and improving your business relationships.

Expanding your network begins by simply meeting more people. In the broadest sense meeting anyone is better than not meeting any new people. Of course depending on your business you want to begin to refine your networking outreach so that you are maximizing your time investment by reaching higher value targets. Higher value targets are obviously those individuals with whom you have the potential to have a direct business relationship. But in the beginning go for quantity until you begin to understand how to find the quality contacts you require. 

If your business is broad such as providing self-improvement or personal services like a salon, spa, fitness center or food and entertainment services virtually everyone you meet is a potential client or in a position to recommend you to someone. Be sure all of your contacts understand what you have to offer and be sure they know how to contact you. Your business card is the best device to be sure that everyone you meet has your contact information. Likewise be sure to collect their contact information so that you can follow-up with them as well. Getting new business requires that you be proactive and reach out to your network on a regular periodic basis. People’s needs change. They may not require your product or service today but when the opportunity arises you want to be sure you are the person they perceive to be their solution provider. 

Put yourself in a position to meet as many new people as you can. There are plenty of ideas on this blog to help you find new ways to meet people. When you are beginning your networking campaign a broad approach is fine. As you network pay attention to what activities are yielding the best results and repeat or seek more of those activities. If your market is narrow a general business networking meeting may not yield the best return on time invested. You might be better off investing your time at industry specific or business to business events.  However action is always better than inaction because though you can try to make a good guess often it is very difficult to see where your next opportunity lies. 

Networking is not just about building one-to-one relationships. Networking also implies reaching into other people’s network. Imagine a spider web. There are many pathways available to reach any point on the web. In the same way a person you meet might be the person who is the conduit to where you are trying to get. Simply stated a personal introduction to the decision maker you are trying to reach by someone in your network is the fastest and most effective way to make a valuable contact. Take time to understand the people you know by trying to understand who they know. 

It’s impractical to ask everyone you meet for a list of people they know (though services like LinkedIn can be very helpful).  But by being sure new contacts understand what you have to offer then communicating to them that you are happy to have them pass the word or introduce you to someone they think might benefit from your product or service, you expand your reach significantly and immediately. Remember this is a two way street so be sure to do the same for them. In fact lead by example, when you see a good fit offer to help make a connection. 

Next week I’ll blog a little about the next step which is relationship building. For now just keep in mind you cannot build relationships until you have a network of people that you know. Knowing people is valuable. It is your social capital. Earn as much as you can then invest it wisely.

You’re Invited !!!

Call it a happy hour or coffee break if you prefer 

but this is a chance to rest from your mundane

chores and meet a few new people.

 This is a real time,

online networking event 

where you can actually talk with actual people.

Since you are doing it from your own location 

 you will need to provide your own beverage and snacks. 

but we will provide the opportunity to interact with

some interesting individuals  and learn a bit about each other.

Here are the guidelines. 

  Ideally you will call in to the phone number provided

using your landline, cell phone, Skype, VOIP

 ship to shore radio or whatever you have.   

  Simultaneously you will monitor

your Special Event Internet console

that will automatically display the profile

of the person you are speaking with and

display your profile to them. 

  So be sure to take 3 or 4 minutes

to prepare your profile in advance

of the meeting.

 Ideally when you register. 

Like right after you finish reading this.

  When the meeting begins,

and after a few introductory remarks,

probably from me, (about 5 minutes)

you will be randomly paired with

someone else on the call 

(by our online magic randomizer)  .

During your short (3-4 minute) meeting

I suggest you tell your partner something

you did this week to help a client

or how you introduced someone to your product

or service as a way of explaining what you do. 

So for instance, instead of saying: “My name is Reno

and I produce short multi-media web videos.”  

 You might say, “My name is Reno

and I just completed the production

of a short web video for a client who

recently published a novel 

 and I am working with a potential client

who owns a sign company and wants a

short web video to show people the different

kinds of signs he manufactures. 

In this way in a short period of time

you can give your new contact an idea

of what kinds of projects you do and

the benefits of your product or service. 

 He or she will likely respond

with a few questions to clarify

and then share his or her

business experiences with you. 

This is a bit like speed dating

or networking on the subway.

When your time is up

you will be abruptly

and unceremoniously

switched to a new partner. 

 But no worries mate!

You’ll have a chance to send an email

through the system when the event is over

 and follow-up with those individuals that

  you want to follow up with.         

 Be not afraid.

This is a fun new way to make business contacts

and expand your sphere of influence,

and you don’t even have to comb your hair.

 Register now!

Click on these very words you are reading now.

Oh yeah … It’s Tuesday – June 8,2010 at 4 PM (CST) for 55 minutes.

We are happy to announce that every Friday begining Friday June 4th this site will feature a different guest blogger here at the Business Card to Business Blog. The purpose of this blog is to share ideas about networking with an emphasis on face-to-face networking and the use of business cards to reinforce your message and deliver your contact information. But we also talk about online networking, social media, marketing and other items of interest to owners of small businesses, those with products and services to promote and entrepreneurs in general.

Be sure to stop by at least one a week or use the RSS feed to remind you.

GUEST BLOGGER SCHEDULE

Update:

August 20     Lonnie Sciambi       “The Entrepreneur Yoda”

August 27     Chuck Rizzo               Marketing to the Masses

September 03   Lynda O’Connor    Radio Interview Tips

September 10   Charlie Newman   Negotiation is a Part of Life

I knew it would be difficult for me to meet all of the 100 people in 50 days I have challenged myself to meet through face-to-face networking alone. I knew I would have to engage people online as well. In fact there is no good reason to separate the two activities. Both online and offline networking are valid ways to make contacts today and business people should be using all avenues available. These two tactics should not be seen as being in competition with one another.  If you are following my challenge hopefully you will get a few ideas and examples of how you might broaden your own sphere of influence.

A few days ago I connected with Sally Chapralis a Chicago area public relations and communications professional. I cannot rememebr now if I saw her name on a group discussion board or if it was one of those suggestions of people you might know that LinkedIn provides. But anyway I noticed we had a few contacts in common and I liked what I saw at her profile and website so reached out to say hello. Sally and I had a nice phone conversation and we learned a bit about each other including the fact that she is a jazz fan. I am looking forward to meeting Sally in person at our next business card to business meetup. Stop by and you can meet her too.

If you’ve been reading along for the past week or so you will remember my new buddy Lonnie Sciambi “The Entrepreneurs Yoda.” Lonnie introduced me to Charlie Newman who he described as “the best negotiator in the free world.” Charlie is the retired Director of International Business Development for the Automotive Component Division of one of the big Detroit auto companies. He spends his time now teaching and developing plans to help smaller businesses startup or grow by building alliances. This is what Charlie had helped big companies do and now he is using his expertise to help small business. Well I suppose based on what he is used to all business is small business for Charlie.  He  has presented his experiences and ideas in a book called “Beyond the Chicken Dance.” As Charlie explained it to me all negotiations and alliances begin with a kind of courtship ritual which he equates to the chicken dance but the real work begins once the courtship dance is over. Though a shrewed and tough negotiator Charlie emphasized that the end game is a win-win situtation. You do not want to enter into what is essentially a marriage with one party feeling like they are on the losing end of what is supposed to be a newly formed team. Check out his book, I look forward to some more conversatons with Charlie, who by the way is also no stranger to a pool cue.

Today I had the good fortune to meet marketing and branding expert, Ben Baker of CMYKsolutions.com Vancouver, BC.  Ben and I also connected online at LinkedIn and ended up having a great conversation. Ben markets a few interesting and diverse products and specializes in helping trade show exhibitors get more out of their trade show experience through better planning and execution of their trade show strategy. I am a veteran of hundreds of trade shows and in fact still manage exhibits for a few of my clients. I know from experience that many exhibitors have no idea what they hope to accomplish through their attendence and typically have poor follow up strategies. In fact in Turn Your Business Card to Business I have one chapter devoted to using your business cards effectively at conventions and trade shows.  Ben offers a needed service and we agreed there was definitly a synergy between our businesses.

My final part of this report is meeting Karen MacNab (again online) who is a coordinator for the growing Connectors networking group I blogged about a few posts back.  The coincidences and ironic twists involved in our meeting are too difficult for me to type out here, but in a nutshell Karen was at the meeting I wrote about earlier. However we connected today because she was seeking a speaker for an upcoming meeting and found me quite by accident at meetup.com. Well long story short we did finally meet but it would have been nicer had we had an opportunity to exchange business cards last week since we were standing in the same room breathing the same air. Its’ great that we did connect but it goes to show you how easy it is to miss an opportunity. My short message as always is to meet as many people as you can and when it is face-to-face, seal the deal with a business card. If it is online follow up with an email. I keep most of my general networking contacts at LinkedIn and will blog later about how that is working for me.

For tonight the count stands at Day 31 with 59 new people met.

I just returned from the Confectionery Show at McCormick Place in Chicago. Thanks to a gracious invitation from Sam Macdonald of North American Sales Solutions (NASS). Sam is also the leader of and can be found at  The Candy & Snack Supergroup which is purported to be the largest confectionery and snacks social media group on the Internet. Look for it at LinkedIn. Though hailing from Vancouver, Sam and I connected through LinkedIn Chicago where he appeared to promote his Confectionery get together. He noticed a blurb about my challenge to meet 100 people in 50 days and suggested I come by his hospitality room at McCormick Place. Now that’s a good example of online networking leading to a  face-to-face networking opportunity. It just goes to show what I have been saying, which is that online social media does not preclude F2F networking, it compliments it. In this case it took a guy in town from Vancouver to bring 10 of us Chicago area business people together at the same table. Thanks Sam!

When you are out aggressively networking as I am doing during this challenge you might encounter a situation similar to one I encountered today, networking at an event that is part of a trade show promoting an industry in which I am an outsider. Now since I produce web videos I can service a wide variety of industries including confectionery but at a trade show people do not necessarily have online marketing foremost on their minds. They also may not be the primary decision makers for my service. But hey! Nine more people know who I am and have my business card in case something comes up and they see me as their solution provider. Do your best to network at events that appear to be a good fit for you but also do not be afraid to spread your wings, you never know what you might fly in to. I know this was a stretch but I appreciated Sam’s out-of-the-box thinking in inviting me and I feel he and I made a good connection, worthy of keeping him in my LinkedIn list of contacts. I encounter people in all industries and in fact about 10 years ago worked with a small candy company struggling to find shelf space. I wish I had a Sam Macdonlad in my Rolodex back then.

Some of the folks I met today include Seth Bender of Evanston based Savor the Food Agency. Providing design services to businesses in the food industry. Tracy Nappier, President of adcomm group providing B2B advertsing placement exclusively for food companies. Bruce Brandel of The Packaging Team offering contract packaging solutions for a variety of industries and John Wendling of  Mid-America Display, producers of corregated displays, packaging and boxes.

Since Sam was the only one I feel I made a meaningful business connection with I am only counting ONE New Person Met for this event. But I did learn that it may be to my advantage to promote Low Fat, Sugar Free, Gluten Free, Organic Video to my list of services offered to be more attractive to the confectionery industry and their the consumers.

Today I took the el downtown to meet with the American Marketing Association – Chicago Meetup (AMA).  I’ve met with this group before and find the discussions insightful. The group is primarily professionals sharing ideas about trends in marketing, advertising and public relations. The format is to give five or six attendees a chance to share a marketing related objective or challenge then let the group weigh in on how to attack the problem. I got the opportunity to tell about AuthorsBroadCast.com then get some feedback on how I might improve my marketing strategy in regard to getting the message of my video book trailer production service disseminated to more authors and publishers. I had a chance to meet several people but there was no official card swap so I did not get a chance to really key in on more than those who were in my immediate vicinity. For the most part this is not an entrepreneurial networking meeting where people are seeking publicity so in the case of a few folks I will use only first names to tell about the new people I met.

 This next bit of the story may seem a bit misplaced but this is a post about marketing, so why not a little case study of my consumer experience with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

I have to begin by telling you that I am not an avid rider of the CTA. Okay I admit it. However my wife rides everyday which I feel is support enough for both of us. I have a home office and if I have to go someplace I tend to walk if it’s within 2 miles or jump in the car and drive. I avoid going into the loop if possible. I also avoid far Western Suburbs too so that pretty much limits my range. Well in the past week or so I have had a number of downtown meetings to attend and frankly the thirty dollar parking tabs were starting to chap me a bit. So today I thought, “Okay I’ll take the el.” I live fairly close to the Brown Line and the meeting was right near LaSalle and Lake so I had no excuse to do otherwise. 

Now this is where a good idea starts getting complicated. My wife has a nifty CTA smart card pass of some kind that I know little about. I had an old CTA transit card left behind by a visiting niece but had no idea how much value it had if any. I would have preferred to take the bus and do this thing right. But instead I began my journey by DRIVING to the Western Brown Line stop so that I could purchase a transit card. When I got there, it turned out the old transit card was expired! The attendant ran it through another card reader and told me it had seventy-five cents remaining but that was not enough to make a claim. So now I am already a little tiffed. Where does the CTA get off telling me that my seventy-five cents is not important. Maybe it is to me. Maybe I want to give that ticket to some homeless guy. Why do I have to donate my niece’s seventy-five cents to the CTA? Yikes! Okay I can get past that for the moment. But I seem to remember that Lisa Madigan cracked down on the expiring store gift cards. How is it that the CTA got a pass on this scam? 

So now I go to the machine to buy a transit card only to find it does not take credit cards. Boy that’s really user friendly. The parking meters and garages downtown take credit cards, but not the CTA! As it turns out I have four twenty dollar bills in my pocket. But I do not want a $20 transit card. I am not sure how soon I will be enjoying another adventure like this and I just made a seventy-five sent forced donation. I only want a ten dollar transit card however the machine does not give change. Now I understand the challenges related to capping a leaking oil pipe in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico but I cannot understand why the CTA cannot find a vendor with the technology necessary to accept credit cards or give change back on a purchase. It’s a twenty dollar transit card for me or nothing. 

Business cards from the AMA May 2010 meeting

As it turns out I have to go park my car someplace anyway so I leave the Western el station, transit cardless with no firm plan. I need to change this $20 bill. I am sure you know just how accommodating small retail stores are when it comes to this request. “May I give you a twenty dollar bill and take all of your singles and fives.” I really could not stand the indignation of the possibility of this rejection and began harboring thoughts of driving downtown. I decided to drive aimlessly following the Brown Line south as I made my decision. 

Within a few minutes I was at Montrose and spotted a Laundromat. Ha! That’s the ticket. Laundromats need to make change they probably have a machine and I will not have to discuss my situation with anyone, simply an anonymous change machine. I can even imagine how it would look. Just like the one at the car wash near my house with the slot indicating which way to insert your bill illustrated by the outline of George Washington facing in the proper direction and lit up by a little red L.E.D.s. Silk screened on the case would be large white lettering indicating $5 – $10 – $20 BILLS. Perfect! 

Almost miraculously I found a parking spot just off Montrose on a side street with no permit parking signs anywhere to be seen. I walked swiftly and purposely to the Laundromat and searched in vain for the glittering casinolike bill changer that would transform my twenty dollar bill into twenty singles. At this point I would settle for eighty quarters. After about two laps around the establishment I finally asked the attendant if there was a machine that could change my twenty dollar bill. “Oh no we can’t give change for a twenty. We can only give change if you do laundry.” Yikes!! 

Alright so this story does have a relatively happy ending. Back out on the street I notice a currency exchange near the train entrance. I figure even if I have to pay them seventy-five cents I’d rather stimulate their economy. At least they would be providing a service. However happily I discovered that they sold ten dollar CTA transit cards with no additional premium. At last I was on my way. 

For discussion. How in the world can the CTA be serious about increasing rider ship and getting gas guzzling drivers like me out of their cars when I cannot even figure out how to pay them for the privilege? 

Arriving at the meeting I was cheerfully greeted by the assistant organizer Alex Yates whose business card describes him as a “Marketing Mad Man.” Probably not half as mad as I was twenty minutes earlier. I had some nice interaction with Steve Forstneger, Editor of the Illinois Entertainer your source for finding who’s performing where in the Chicago and environs pop music scene. Two previous networking buddies Fredrick Dudek, and market research expert Jonathan, who I met a few weeks ago at the LinkedIn event. Karen Flannery is also a market research maven with Thoroughbred Research Group. Gary was job seeker with an MBA from U of C who also has an IT background looking to apply his skills to marketing and Andrea currently between assignments doing freelance work. Andrea did not have an official business card with her but she did have a blank calling card with an embossed imprint of two hands clasped in greeting with the words PLEASED TO MEET YOU! Under which she wrote her name informing me that we could connect at LinkedIn. I actually respect Andrea’s approach. I have written previously about the fact that women are often reluctant to give their phone numbers and emails too freely at networking events. I think this is a very acceptable solution. So in my quest to meet 100 new people in 50 days I am adding Steve, Karen, Andrea and Gary. Bringing my total to 35 after 21 days. Seems I better step up my game a bit. Be sure to follow me as I stumble along by car, by rail or on foot.