Moving Beyond Small Time Clever
I had a great conversation with the CEO of the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, Rick Kidder, last week about the shift that has been going on inside my business over the last year and I asked him what he thought about the name of my company - Network 2 Networth. What he said was a a kind of confirmation for me. A reinforcement of what I knew on some level - but couldn't quite put into words. He said that it struck him as "small time clever."
Now some people may think that statement is a bit straightforward - but given the history of my company and product offering, it brought something into relief for me. I desperately need to re-brand myself and what I'm offering.
A bit of history - Along with a fantastic group of folks, including Betsy McGrew, Joel Bez, Butch Leiber, and many more, I presided over the growth of one of the largest chapters of BNI in the world - The Biltmore Power Chapter. At one point we had over 80 members and were passing record amounts of referrals. I learned quite a bit about network building and relationship building.
Through that association, Betsy McGrew introduced me to the Certified Networker Program, offered by the Referral Institute, and I quickly became a licensed trainer for the Program. Over the course of 3 years we trained over 300 students - at the time the largest number by far - and produced some fantastic results with people.
But a few things bothered me.
One - the material was largely a rehash of Dr Ivan Misner's written material. A way to repackage his books. It wasn't done in a way that people could systematically apply the material.
Two - there was a lot missing. Being a business coach and having worked with people in the implementation of their client development strategies, the material was surface and didn't really address the subtext that people deal with as they learn new skill sets.
So, staying true to my license, I delivered the material as presented and added the missing elements. The results were incredible.
Then in March 2007, I parted ways with the Referral Institute.
I pulled back, looked back over the previous three years and took my own coaching. I applied the 80/20 rule and looked at the students who had the most success with what we taught. And an amazing thing happened - a clear profile emerged. And a clear set of things that they consistently asked me for and asked for coaching around. My perfect client was almost never a run-of-the-mill BNI participant. They were often advanced in their career and had a completely different set of issues than a typical BNI type business.
So I drew up a new curriculum, brought in a fantastic collaborator, and created our Business Development Intensive.
We've had over 70 students through the program in the last 12 months and the results have been off the charts.
So now to the crux of the issue.
Shortly after meeting with Rick, I attended the CEO Advantage program (also through the Scottsdale Chamber) and presented my dilemma to the group - I feel caught between old branding and new - and old perception of what we
delivered and the new reality.
So over the next few months, I am going to be asking for input from the current course participants, and talking to the old course participants and sharing what is happening.
And if you are a reader of this blog - I'd love to hear from you. What issues have you dealt with in regards to re-branding and re-messaging when you've gone through a shift in your company?
Raymond Chip Lambert
Network 2 Networth
Your Outsourced Business Development Training Partner
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We have had several long-term clients decide to re-brand themselves. One changed their company name and logo and website address three times in about a year.
They have never recovered from the negative impact of those changes.
As you do this, be sure to plan it extremely well and be sure you are going in the right direction.
Coca Cola Corp. can recover from "New Coke" but you have to try get it right and keep it moving toward "BIG TIME Clever."
I learned from a wise old mentor once, "When the paradigm shifts, everythingn resets to zero." In this case your paradigm has shifted, hasn't it. You are no longer thinking in terms of sales as in Mary Kay, Massage Therapy, Realtors and Title pros. Today you are thinking in terms of 5 to 50 million dollar businesses. What we refer to as the SMB or small to medium business. While tactical referral prospecting is effective in sub million dollar businesses, SOHO or small office, home office, strategic referral networking is far more appropriate to SMB's.
Having sat thorugh your coursework, and busting my own hump through the same efforts you are now going through, I can suggest to you Rick Kidder is a smart man.
I was shocked one day, after buying a pair of shoes at Footlocker in the mall to see the words "Kinney Shoe Corporation" on the box. It never occured to me the folks at Kinney Shoes realized it was time to give up the ubiquitous brown building, as a stand alone shoe store. Their real estate strategy shifted to the foot traffic of a mall and they have prospered.
The lesson here? It comes from your own material my friend. Once you have your perfect client profile, you can build your brand around your client. I am not convinced you have fully adopted your new client base.
Recognize, your material is very upscale, your paradigm shifted to what works at a high level and it is time to service people who both "get"
and can afford what you now provide.
Soilomon Says: "The sale happens when the buyers perception of return exceeds the investment." If you can demonstrate that adopting your model will result in a ten times return, then you are no longer begging daddy for money when you ask someone to buy. You are giving them ten times their investment in value.
Your market, to my way of thinking is for those who engage in high end referral prospecting. It is the basic skill set for playing in the bigs. It may have value for the SMB/s but I believe, it is the essential tool also, for the future Fortune500 CEO.
Aren't you glad Zero was over a year ago?
Michael Goodman
Executive Director
International Sales Pros Association
www.gosalespros.com
www.salessquawk.com
Michael D. Goodman
goodman@ussalesgroup.com
480-874-3664
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