Connecting Face-to-Face through Coffee and Conversation
- Coffee connections
One thing that amazes me, on a continual basis, is how people will blame their lack of networking success on other people and special circumstances. In the words of Emeril LaGasse, “This is not rocket science, folks.”
On an annual basis, business owners consider their ROI from various associations, networking groups and chambers of commerce. These have paid their dues, and perhaps more, but still don’t see a clear and definitive (measured in $$$) Return On Investment. This a big issue, but I’m only going to address a slice of it, via this post.
REALITY CHECK: Membership in any trade group or association gives you opportunity or access. You can leverage the situation by:
- Showing up to every meeting or almost every meeting.
- Making sensible donations: Those that benefit the organization AND showcase your company, effectively.
- Serving on a committee.
- Participating in a project.
- Serving on a Board of Directors
Here is the trick. Connections do not magically occur during a 3-hour event, once a month. That event and membership are simply the launching pad.
I know: “People are busy, companies are dealing with reduced staff, blah, blah, blah.”
They still have breakfast, lunch and dinner. The best way to leverage your organization membership is to get face-to-face with people. A solid 30-40 minutes before work, or at any mutually convenient time, is a solid way to develop a personal and business relationship.
If you call and are told, “Gee, I’m busy until the second week of November,” that’s OK, make a coffee date for the Tuesday or Wednesday in November. Figure it out. Get on their agenda, at their convenience.
Your ‘coffee date’ should not be a selling situation. It should be a get-to-know-you-and-your-business meeting; a stepping stone other avenues for referrals and more.
Vendors often feel that Directors of Catering and other venue contacts condescend to them. The reality on this one is that they have their hands full just trying to meet their own sales numbers, and are often annoyed by what they perceive as business owners with their hands out.
This is a complex discussion, but suffice to say, if you use the coffee connection to help determine how you can make your catering/venue/planner’s life easier, you are far likelier to have success in building a referral relationship.
Here is your assignment:
Make a list of the top 25 people you would like to do business with (Start with professionals who you have a commonality with, through membership in an association or networking group).- Planning through January 2010, schedule at least one coffee connection meeting a week.
- Research in advance: Use Facebook or LinkedIn to survey the person’s interests, work history, education background, etc., and use it softly in discussion.
- Figure out your follow up: Take notes on anything you promised to do or look into, during that meeting, and get it done.
- Acknowledge: With a quickie handwritten note. That trumps an email or anything else, six-ways-to-Sunday.
Being on a referral list is overrated. You want to be top of mind, and on people’s lips, when they talk with clients and peers.
If you are just paying your dues, you are likely underachieving.
Please share your own strategies that work, and post about your coffee connections.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Wedding Video Podcast: Both Informative and Self-Promotional
- Coffee with Ricky: video podcast
Ricky Gulati of Memory Lane Video, makes a decided effort to network heavily. He is active in the Las Vegas Wedding Network and the Las Vegas Chapter of NACE.
Recently, he’s added a new tactic to his strategic arsenal. Coffee With Ricky, a video podcast. He hasn’t set in stone a schedule for the podcast series, but it’s a good bet it will eventually be a monthly offering, if it’s to be effective.
His audience is both brides and the local wedding professional. His intent is to provide good information and position himself as a wedding industry expert; particularly in the Las Vegas market.
The guest in this episode is Debbie Hansen, Producer of Bridal Spectacular, a Las Vegas – based wedding trade show for almost two decades. While it will take Ricky a few episodes to reach his comfort zone as host, he is well prepared with all the right questions the viewer would want asked. The result is an effective promotional tool for both interviewer and interviewee.
The questions you should be asking are:
- Could I produce an audio or video podcast myself?
- Could I collaborate to produce an audio or video podcast?
- If not as a producer, am I prepared to be a guest on someone else’s show? (Locally, regionally, or nationally)
Credibility and authority in the wedding industry is important. This is a great example of it.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
What's The Value Of One Business Card?
You know the feeling. You dash out the door, jump in the card, headed for a networking meeting. You arrive on time, just barely, and then it hits you.You forgot to stock up on business cards. It’s too late to go back to your office and retrieve them. You are now going to look like a rank amateur. Not having business cards in your pocket will subconsciously cause you to minimize making new connections. The scary part is that you never know the value of just one business card exchange.
There is a simple bit of preventative wedding marketing maintenance to make certain this never happens. When ordering or reordering business cards, buy an extra 1000 and stash them everywhere. You should never be at any networking event without 25-50 cards.
Stash a reserve 25-50 cards in the following places.
- In your car glove box or center console
- In the glove box or center console of your significant other’s car
- In one pocket of every suit coat or sport coat
- In every purse your own
- … fill in your special place, here
We’re talking about a few hundred extra cards, for back up, We’re not talking about your special business card case. This is back up.
You’ll never have that sick feeling, in the pit of your stomach, again.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Is your pricing and service structure working against you?
Wedding vendors are often frustrated that brides don’t appreciate the value of their services. Ultimately, aside from ‘customer service,’ there are three major factors that come into play.
- Hours of service
- Price for product/service
- The quality of the result
One major problem is the tradition of how pricing is presented. Often, particularly for entertainment, photography, videography, the pricing presented to the prospect is based on ‘time in direct contact with the client.’
That method, while customary in the wedding industry, understates the time directly serving any single client, not to mention their share of overall service and time from your business.
Until I went through the process of being a groom, I never realized how much time a videographer or photographer spent, after the wedding, before presenting the final result. Contracts for services show beginning and end times at the event, but I’ve never seen an informational description of how much time is spent in post-production, for example.
When a prospect doesn’t know how many hours it takes to edit one hour of raw footage from one camera, it’s hard for her to understand why the price is $4000 rather than $1000. Hours are tangible measure of your effort. The result is more subjective.
It is not sufficient to show a prospect samples of your reel or finished photos and expect them to understand the degree of difficulty. A photographer who shoots a sunset wedding has a great degree of difficulty. If one doesn’t explain the situational differences in equipment, lighting, etc., then you are just hoping that the client figures it out. That’s not good enough.
A DJ service or band prices itself for a specific number of hours of performance. Travel and set up are typically not shown, unless the event is outside the local market area.
What effect might it have if proposals and contracts had a simple ‘informational statement’ that indicated a list of additional tasks associated with the event that do not happen during the precise reception time frame? Effective implementation includes discussing the total scope of your service with the client, including a summary of those points, in your proposal, and briefly including it in (or as an attachment) to your agreement.
Maybe this should be an industry-wide standard for wedding marketers? What would change in the process of selling if every prospect understood you total measure of service, and its impact on the final result for the bride?
I know, I’m turning the pricing and selling approach on its ear. Maybe it’s time we do that.
I invite your specific comments, and how you think this might apply within your slice of the wedding industry.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Serving Las Vegas wedding professionals through networking, education, and synergy.
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