Networking, or Informational Interviewing is one of the
most valuable strategies for gathering information and
establishing contacts. It can enable you to: Gain a
firsthand impression of a particular employer or industry;
get practical ideas and insider advice about how to enter
that field; get contacts with other people in your area of
interest; develop and maintain friendly relationships with
your contacts; enlarge the list of people who can alert you
to job opportunities.

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Copyright (c) 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

“If…you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to
be a horrible warning.” Catherine Aird

Do people willingly want to follow you? The real test of
leadership is influence. Would your subordinates describe
you as an effective manager, supervisor or team leader? Be
honest with yourself. Put yourself in their shoes. Would
you want to work for YOU?! If your employees’ pay,  perks
and benefits were not dependent on doing what you ask,
would they still want to follow you? If the answer is yes,
you are truly a role model of leadership.

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Most intelligent people are willing to say: “I am
responsible. I am accountable.” To say and mean this is the
first step. The second step is to add the word
“completely”. “I am completely responsible”. This is
difficult for most. When something goes wrong we tend to
say: “I am responsible but…” Our “but’s” get in the way
of assuming complete responsibility. Complete
responsibility increases your ability to accomplish goals.
Complete responsibility is power. In order to assume
complete responsibility we have to kick our “but’s”.

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When you minimize risk in purchasing decisions a lot more
people are willing to say “yes”. Once they sample your
product or service, if it performs as you say, most
customers will keep that product and continue buying again
and again.

Here’s a little story to illustrate my point.

A farmer wanted to buy a hunting dog for his son. There
were two for sale in a nearby town. The first seller told
the farmer he was asking $300 for his bloodhound,
non-negotiable.

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Copyright (c) 2006 Kelly Robbins

It doesn’t matter the size of your business or what
industry it is in, I recommend creating a list of the
clients you would looooooove to work with — your dream
clients. This is a list of large to medium size companies
that are your ideal prospects. You are going to spend the
majority of time, marketing efforts and energy targeting
this group of people.

We all have a limited budget for marketing. That’s just
life and you need to make due with you’ve got. Your job is
to get the most exposure and the most response for every
dollar you spend. The best way to do that is to be very
targeted to the people you send your message to, and spend
your energy on.

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Questions like this always boil down to one factor: How
much is your mailing list worth to your business. Each
industry has its own use for a mailing list, and not all of
them will gain subscribers the same way.     Lets go
through a few different industries, how they use a mailing
list, and the best way for them to gain subscribers. Let’s
start with a group that relies very little on online
marketing. High priced products…let’s say some sort of
manufacturing equipment. We’ll even boil that down to
conveyers and conveyer systems.

Mailing Lists and High Priced Items (Business to Business)

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Copyright (c) 2006 Todd Brabender

When starting a successful business venture or launching a
new product, most entrepreneurs or business owners conduct
some type of marketing research to determine the extent of
their prospective customer base. And when getting the word
out to that customer base, many entrepreneurs may turn to
the media to help generate a buzz for them. However, as
detailed as their marketing research might have been, very
few business owners are as meticulous at determining their
proper “media market” – that is, all those media outlets
whose editorial profiles are a match to a product/business
profile and would be appropriate for generating media
exposure and publicity.

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Copyright (c) 2006 Sean Conway

Almost every successful, wealthy entrepreneur when
interviewed states they had a significant, extraordinary
goal they wanted to achieve. And it was this goal that has
driven them to succeed in their chosen field.  Refer to any
“Rich List’ complied by leading magazines, for example,
Forbes Magazine, and you will find many wealthy people
started with nothing but a dream and a desire to turn what
they loved into a thriving viable business.

Some of these goals included to make money and never be
poor again; to turn a hobby into a business; to never work
for a boss; or to prove to everyone that they could be a
success. The consistent thing amongst all of these goals is
that they are deeply personal – they really mean something
to the entrepreneur. In fact, they mean so much that the
entrepreneur became inspired to achieve success and worked
feverishly in doing everything they could toward that goal.

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Copyright 2006 Lani and Allen Voivod

Thanks to folks like Edison, Jung, Einstein, and Winfrey,
we’ve all heard of the “Aha! Moment.” It’s that beautiful
flash of insight – an epiphany! – that comes to us when
we’re busy doing something else. Or perhaps more often,
happily unbusy, doing absolutely nothing of quantitative
value.

That flash of insight is, literally, a divine gift –
especially when it comes to your business. It can create
products, improve services, open up doors, unleash
opportunities, or simply give you a solution to a problem
that’s been nagging you mercilessly.

It’s a gift, but it’s not the goal. An “Aha!” is only the
beginning.

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Copyright 2006 The National Learning Institute

Do you need to have:

• Your manager give you more credit for the work that you
do?

• Your partner acknowledge that your ideas are really worth
listening to?

• Your children accept more responsibility?

• Your friends take you seriously when you really mean it?

• Your customers buy more from you?

• Your suppliers meet your quality standards?

• Your team become more energetic?

Hey, couldn’t the list go on!  I’m sure many of us would
like to see some or all of the above occur (and probably a
few more as well).  The key to being more successful in our
interpersonal endeavours, is to become more influential.
Influence is no longer considered a magic quality that is
bestowed on some and not others.  Nor is it something we
gain through holding a position of power.  Surprisingly, we
can all improve our ability to influence others by merely
sharpening the influencing skills we already have in our
armoury and perhaps using them more appropriately according
to the situation.

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