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Is your Networking Paying Off?

Is your Networking Paying Off?

Sometimes when I ask my clients that question, they think they are getting results. I don’t like bursting their balloon but sometimes I have to help them see that they are leaving money on the table. And, I know that’s not their goal!

Haphazard networking might produce some activity and customers…. 

but wait….there’s more …so much more if your networking is guided with a plan.

I know…how unsexy is that!   A plan sounds like a lot of work and a lot of blah, blah, blah…

Networking is about quality vs quantity. If you’ll take the time to plan how to market your business using the currency of networking, you’ll have a very different approach to your networking…different results, too.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the business owner who shows up at the most networking events wins. Good networking requires strategic thinking and planning after you’ve identified your target market.  BTW – Your target market isn’t everyone who has a wallet. 

Register here: for the Make Your Networking WORK for YOU MasterClass on October 12th   – 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm  (ET).

You’ll walk away with a plan that will lift your networking activity off the ground floor and into the C-Suite!  

Look for the next Blog where I’ll share what the Networking C-Suite is!

Jim No Comments

The 4th Quarter is Coming Right Up

At football games at every level from Pop Warner to the NFL it’s a familiar sight  at the end of the 3rd quarter  to see coaches and players waving 4 fingers in the air.

The message is clear.  The 4th quarter is coming right up. And games are often won or lost in the 4th quarter. 

Finishing strong is important to both players and coaches.

Business owners are facing the 4th quarter of 2022. The effort made in the final quarter of the year can mean the difference between significant profits or sluggish sales. The win column or the loss column.

There’s a kind of pressure when the 4th quarter opens up. It’s the last chance to meet your business goals. It’s now or never.

Now is key time to think about winning the game or just forget about it…and look to 2023 and write off 2022.

The 4th quarter is an opportunity to evaluate. It’s a perfect time to assess performance of the past 3 quarters and plan for the next quarter.

The clock is ticking and great businesses understand that there are a limited amount of timeouts. How will you distinguish yourself and your business from the competition and find a way to win this game? 

Will you get on the field and make a difference?

Or will you be content to sit on the sidelines and watch others play a winning game? 

Are you in business to win?

Keeping your energy high and the drive going can be tough as we head into the final quarter of the year. Yes- we’re tired. We’ve worked hard the past 9 months to meet our sales numbers but… that’s no excuse for sitting on the bench.  

Success in business is about finding opportunities and capitalizing on them.

Make no mistake. How you approach the 4th quarter will be the single biggest determining factor in how your first quarter of 2023 unfolds.

Holidays, parties, celebrations and even budgeting offer plenty of reasons to call on customers. The unique happenings of the 4th quarter provide lots of reasons for doors to open. 

Invite your clients to celebrations. The party atmosphere is a splendid stay-in-touch tactic that doesn’t occur in the other quarters of the year.

While a party isn’t the right time to ask for a sale, it is the right time to set the stage. Let your clients or customers know that you appreciate them and you’ll be back in the first quarter of 2023. 

You set the stage and plant the seed so when January 2023 rolls around they should be expecting you and are ready to talk business.

So – LOVE ❤the fourth quarter because it’s the quarter of opportunity.  Finish strong.

If you’d like an “End of Year Assessment” click here:

https://lanebc.com/assessment

Often, this assessment has been the catalyst for generating hundreds and thousands of dollars for businesses. ..all without spending an additional dime on marketing or technology.

Here’s my offer to those of you who want to finish 2022 in the winning column. 

 

Sign up https://lanebc.com/assessment to get the assessment which will take about 10 minutes to complete. Send it back to me and that will trigger the opportunity for a laser session in which we’ll discover hidden opportunities for you to win in the 4th quarter of 2022.  All this is free – there is no hidden sales pitch. Keep your credit card in your wallet – there will be nothing to purchase. 

 

Make it a great day….because you can!

Jim No Comments

How to Make Your Presentation Boring, Dull and Tedious

People sleeping during a presentationEveryone who makes a presentation wants to engage the audience and make their presentation enjoyable and memorable. A good presentation can be a business game-changer if — and only if — you are interesting and noteworthy.

Long Winded

Here are some ways that presenters fail when giving a talk. They are long winded, which will lose your audience quickly. If you make your presentation a test of endurance, you will see attention drop rapidly. Condense your information so it’s easily remembered. Be concise. Read more

Jim No Comments

Good Hire vs Bad Hire

Book Cover Get It Right or You'll Regret ItGet It Right!

The difference between a good hire vs a bad hire is immense. One of the most important responsibilities of a hiring manager is to “get it right!” In our recently published book, Get It Right or You’ll Regret It, we talk about the lost time and added cost a bad hire can cause a company.

Good Hire

A good hire will add to your company’s culture and contribute to your bottom-line. A good hire fits in, has the same values, understands what needs to be done and doesn’t have to be micromanaged. A good hire is Read more

Jim No Comments

Be Visible ~ Even When WFH (Working from Home)

mother of two children working from homeWe’ve been at this Working From Home environment for over a year now. Remember how easy it was to interact with your manager and peers when they were nearby? You could have spontaneous conversations over a cup of coffee or in the hall. You were noticed.

Now you’re working from home and those serendipitous meetings don’t happen. Now you need to take conscious action to be visible. This might seem strange and unnecessary, but it isn’t! When I was working for a high-tech company years ago, I was one of the first employees to be working Read more

Jim No Comments

If Not Now…When? Get Your 10 Minute Presentation Ready

Happy AudienceDo you put off things that you know you “should” do? For instance, taking the time to get a 10 Minute Presentation ready? Wouldn’t it be to your advantage to be able to say, “yes” to every invitation to give a 10 Minute talk – even on the spur of the moment? How would it feel to know that you engaged your audience from the first second and kept their interest until the final second of your presentation? Would it serve you and your business to deliver this marketing outreach in a way that opened doors for potential clients to do business with you? Read more

Jim No Comments

Do You Want to be a Better than Average Presenter?

People clapping and smiling at a better than average presentationSo, you want to be a better than average presenter! In the Win It ~ Don’t Wing It “Boot Camp” starting March 8th at 4:30 pm (Eastern), you will learn the basics as well as tips and tricks to make your presentation Oscar-worthy.

We’ll start with honing in on a clear message and purpose. Dianna Booher, an author, executive coach and communications expert said, “If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour.” If you don’t know what’s important for your audience to hear from you, then what’s the point!? Read more

Jim No Comments

Get and Keep your Audience Attention

speaker in front of an audienceGet and keep their attention during your 10 Minute Presentation

Speakers recognize that the first thing they need to do when standing up in front of an audience is to get and keep their attention. Get them to care. If you don’t get them to care in the first few seconds, you’ve lost your audience.

How do great presenters do this? They are clear with their message. They have a compelling invitation to join them on a journey that inspires, sells products and services, and informs. Read more

Jim No Comments

No Bullet Points!

How to Use PowerPoint in Your 10 Minute Presentation

Picture of Seth Godin saying How to fix your really bad powerpointSeth Godin, author of countless books on Marketing wrote, in Really Bad PowerPoint, “The minute you put bullet points on the screen, you are announcing “Write this down, but don’t really pay attention to it now. People don’t take notes at the opera.”

Research says that text and bullet points are the least effective way to present important information. ClearSlide, the leading sales engagement platform, says that 32% of people fall asleep during PowerPoint presentations and 20 % would prefer to go to the dentist rather than sit through another one! Read more

Jim No Comments

Tips for Virtual Interviewing

job candidate virtual interviewing with hiring managersWe’re in a virtual interviewing world, a singularly challenging process for both the candidate and you, the hiring manager. Both sides of the interview are having to adjust. Managers and candidates have been educated to conduct in-person interviews where body language, tone and expression matter, but in virtual interviews they are no longer available in the same way. We’re playing a very different game now, and both sides of the screen must learn how to connect and grab attention. Read more