We’ve recently released a new version of Inquisix. Members won’t notice much change but new visitors to our site will. Until now, Inquisix has been an invite-only controlled beta because we wanted to correctly capture the process of giving and getting referrals confidentially online. It’s harder than you think! What’s natural in the real world often doesn’t translate well in the virtual world, where all the edge cases have to be considered and implemented. Kudos to our development team, run by Dave Dupre, for making the complex seem easy. And to our current members who’ve provided feedback on making the process better.
Now that we think we’ve got it, we’re opening Inquisix up to anyone who wants to join. We’ll still be in beta for a bit longer as membership continues to grow and we tweak here and there. There will always be a free version of Inquisix while we offer some premium features, too. More on that later.
So if you’re new to Inquisix and want to join, come on in. We’re using a common solution for ensuring only people try to join – Captcha. What’s really interesting about the implementation Dave and his team chose was what the reCaptcha system is doing while you decipher those images into text. As quoted from our Marketing VP’s other blog, “ReCaptcha is helping digitize newspapers, books and old-time radio shows, by putting this wasted time to actual good use. Every reCaptcha solved adds to the world’s library of digital books.”
Tom Cafarella, Inquisix member, owner of accounting firm CMB Accounting and host of “Minding Your Money” on TV, interviewed Michael Kreppein of Inquisix recently. Tom and Michael spoke about the challenges facing small businesses, specifically how they can find new business.
Whether you’re a front-line sales rep hunting for new business, a consultant delivering solutions, or small business owner communicating with customers, board members and employees, it’s all about selling: selling to win new business or selling to retain customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace. So what’s the deal with the buzz around emerging Sales 2.0 solutions? Which approaches are best able to fill the pipeline? How can you integrate informal networking with the latest technologies?
This White Paper by Michael Kreppein, Inquisix’s Chief Sales Officer, explores the value of referral networking by using Inquisix to combine your in-person with your online networking.
Please download the White Paper in pdf format by clicking the link below.
We had a great turnout to Friday Feb 20th’s Executive Club of Boston event hosted on BlitzTime. I was invited to talk on integrating your online networking with your in-person networking efforts. While the audience on the 20th couldn’t see the attached presentation, it’s what I used to prompt me during my speech.
I was in Westboro, MA earlier this week attending the Corridor Nine Chamber of Commerce‘s networking night. The event was very well attended by local businesses with over 350 attendees mingling amongst the food, drinks and violin trio. Very nice, very professional. Best of all, I caught up with 2 Inquisix members, Rick and Brigitte. Both knew the Inquisix story and articulated our benefits to other Chamber members. Thanks!
Now that it’s been a few days since the event, I’m reminded again that many people attend these networking events without a plan. Do they just show up for the free hors d’oeuvres and open bar?
Three (and only three) MUST-do’s at networking events:
Show Up – A surprising number of people attend these events and aren’t prepared. Showing up means more than arriving. Did you bring enough business cards to hand out? Did you bring a pen to jot notes on the back of the cards you receive? Can you articulate your message in 5 seconds? There’s too much noise to get a 30 second elevator pitch across so get your message down to 5 seconds. But the ones who had their 5 second pitch down? Those people I remember!
Follow-up – Even more surprising is the number of people who exchanged cards and never follow up. Again, why bother showing up? Why not a simple email, “I enjoyed meeting you at the Chamber event last night and hearing what you do. I had a chance to look at your website this morning. Look forward to connecting to you at a future event. All the best.” That message is appropriate even if you don’t think the other person can help you. Because you just never know when someone you’ve met will reach out to you. Again, the people with the best 5 seconds all reached out to me later this week.
Give to Get – Still a shame with all the networking tips freely available on the web that people forget that giving begets getting. The most active man in the room was Rick. He spent his time introducing people in the room to each other. If they had trouble articulating their message, he helped them. If they forgot the first step in following up (collecting business cards), he gently offered his as a reminder. Did Rick spend any time telling people what he did? No, he led by example.
John Jantsch has a great blog post about creating a systematic process for creating referrals that everyone in the company should be using.
You can find the link here. I don’t see anything dramatically unique in his steps but they’re all important and it’s surprising how many people forget some of the steps. Of course his big reminder is to “make giving referrals a business strategy…best way to get is to give.”
He closes with “…everybody’s in marketing…” to which I’d reply, “…everybody’s in sales!”
An interesting post on EyesOnSales by Paul McCord got me thinking early this morning. He says to make sure you know how strong your referral is before contacting the prospect. Just because someone gave you a referral doesn’t mean that the prospect values that referral. Seems like common sense to find out what the relationship is and how strong it might be before acting on that referral.
But maybe it’s not common sense. Inquisix (as you all know!) maps the process of getting (and giving) referrals online. Just like a SFA system tracks a sale from lead to prospect to opportunity to close, Inquisix tracks referrals from search to ask to get to rate. Our data shows that the referrals with the best rating almost always have the best exchange of information at the ask and get stage. Why? Because at this stage in the referral exchange is where you are networking with another person to gain a referral from them. Thus, you are exchanging your bona-fides on why you deserve the referral and why they can deliver on the referral.
The best referrals provide you the opportunity to strengthen your reputation with not one but two parties – the person you’re asking the referral of and the person you’re getting the referral to. Makes sense to take the time to do it right!
Ever want to be so famous that you need a publicist to ensure your name is in the papers and TV? Ever wish you had a publicist to help keep your name out of the press?
Forget George Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother watching you, it’s “little brother” on the web watching you. If your goal is to be found on the web then you need to manage your reputation carefully. It’s so hard to build a good reputation online but unfortunately its very easy to get a bad reputation.
As Maxine Winer, who leads the Reputation Management practice at PR agency Edelman, reminded me, “…one of the top 10 rules of blogging is to always get permission to use someone else’s material…. in the blogosphere, transparency reigns supreme and people are judged (often harshly) based on their authenticity or lack thereof.”
Many of the sales author bloggers I’ve been reading have turned in another sales author/speaker because they’ve found their content published on his website under his name. I first saw Dave Stein mention it in his blog. Then Geoffrey James of Selling Power posted on his blog. Next I saw Jill Konrath’s blog saying that this same author was plagiarizing her content.
When you read the trail of blog postings and comment, what do you think? Maxine and I think this is plagiarism, pure and simple. Maxine told me, “It’s bad behavior in any form–not to mention illegal if the material is copyrighted. In this case, it’s just plain foolish (or perhaps arrogant) to publish on his blog and represent as his own work that was written by others. And word spreads like wildfire online. Repairing a tarnished reputation isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either.”
After reading these sales author blog postings and talking to Maxine, I suggest:
Don’t plagiarize. Duh! It’s unethical and way way too easy to get caught
Keep tabs on your own content. Use a service like Google Alerts to search the web for your published content being used without your permission
So what should this sales author do about the plagiarism charges? I asked that question of Maxine and her response was that what he needs to do is admit what he did, acknowledge that it was wrong, apologize (both to those whose material he used and to his readers) and promise to never again use other people’s work without their permission. What do YOU think?
PS - Thank you to The Pandemic Blog for the picuture, where I found another post by an author complaining of plagiarizing.
At a company I worked for, we (the sales reps) called bringing in the CxO level people to our accounts the “Incompetence Tax.” It was a small technology company and we sold to the Fortune 1000. Yet the CEO, CFO, CTO and Chief Legal Officer invariably thought that these big companies would bend over backwards to buy our stuff. The rep would have the deal almost closed when Legal would insist on red-lining the customer’s contract with so many changes that the resulting contract looked like ours. Or the CEO would talk down to a young Managing Director who controlled a bigger budget than our annual sales. Or the CTO would tell the customer that their existing architecture was “…not well thought out.” Or the CFO would insist on “value-based” pricing when our competitors’ products were marginally inferior to ours but priced 2-5 times less. The sales reps learned to put deals thru our partners so that the deal was on someone else’s paper with someone else’s pricing. Of course, we then got less money on the deal but it was better than losing the deal all together. Thus, the Incompetence Tax!
Jill’s discussion was very interesting. While she admitted that much of what she wanted to talk about was in her book, it was beneficial to get the synopsis.
Her main point is that the corporate decision makers use the delete key first. When listening to your voice mail, their finger is on the *3 or whatever key combination they use to delete your voice mail and email. Their preference is to delete, not listen. So if you are not relevant, your message is deleted immediately.
That means that you don’t have 30 or even 10 seconds to get your point across. You have 5 seconds to be relevant. Her studies have shown that corporate decision makers also believe that it’s your responsibility as the sales rep to call them back. Jill says that you’re their conscience.
Being relevant means you can’t be consultative. No more, “Hi, this is Jill and I’d like to understand more about your business issues so that we can find a solution for you.” Corporate decision makers don’t have the time or desire to educate you. Jill says that you must be assumptive in your belief that they have a pressing problem and that you can solve it.
Jill says that the corporate decision makers will review 3 things in their head as their finger is poised over the delete key.
Are you relevant?
Is this an urgent problem?
Are you credible, ie are you the one to solve this problem?
I found what she said very timely and very interesting. Thanks, Jill for your insight. And thanks to Nigel for hosting!
