Top 10 Most Valuable Networking Skills for Every Professional

Top 10 Most Valuable Networking Skills for Every Professional

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Face-to-face networking is still one of the best ways to grow your business. Networking takes quite a bit more practice and effort than many people think it does. In fact, networking is a process that has several steps to do it successfully. Learn about these valuable networking skills that will help you find new clients, relevant connections, and build win-win relationships.

The Most Valuable Networking Skills

Create Real Friendships with Quality Connections

The first thing you need to do with networking is to shift your focus more on the people, not your potential opportunities. It can be very obvious to people when you are reaching out to them because you have something to gain. Instead, try to get to know the person you are speaking to a little bit. One useful relationship strategy is to be fully “on” in the moment. This means focusing yourself fully on what is happening in the meeting.

Another way to get to know people on a more personal level is to ask them about their family, friends, and interests. People love to talk about themselves, even outside of the professional realm. When you learn more personal details about the people you are networking with, it will make it so much easier to see them as more than just connections or opportunities.

Do Informal Interviews

Interview skills are a vital element of networking. These interview skills are helpful in many situations, not just in journalism or public relations. If you speak to your conversation partner in the Q&A format, for example, it will help you develop your listening skills, which will determine what your next question may be. This skill is essential to conducting good interviews and networking.

Listen with Intent

The practice of listening with intent to your networking partner to pick up relevant information is called active listening. The key is to get in the habit of practicing active listening at all times, not just in the work environment.

Be Positive

Face it, people are attracted to others with optimistic attitudes. The language you use while networking can also determine your success. Therefore, it is a great idea to try to maintain a positive attitude so you are seen as someone who finds solutions to problems and will take on new challenges.

Be Selfless

The concept of being selfless in networking is an ability to think of others’ needs before your own. When people see you as being of value to your network by offering assistance, it will help you build win-win relationships with many, both in and eventually outside of your industry.

Exude Confidence

One thing most leaders have in common is perceived confidence. People tend to gravitate toward people with confidence. Exude this confidence in everything you do and say, and you can empower your success as people follow you.

Accept All Feedback from Your Peers

This is the time to leave your ego at the door and accept all feedback from peers, both positive and negative. Constructive criticism can be one of the best tools that can help optimize your networking if you listen to others in your industry. You can use this information to improve your business.

Work on the Pitch

When the time comes to bring up your pitch in your networking cycle, make sure it is concise. A common networking term is the “elevator pitch” which is a pitch that can be relayed in one or two sentences aka in the time it takes to make a quick elevator ride. Those few sentences will have to make a real impact so you can get people intrigued in your brand. The best pitches are the ones that are short and manage to connect with the emotional core of what your business does. You can work on your elevator pitch to perfect it. Ask colleagues to listen to you practice your pitch and provide you with feedback on how you can improve it. 

Always be Consistent

Networking is also something you should be doing on a regular basis, not just when you seek new opportunities. Once you get yourself out there in the network circuit, you should not just fade away because people can forget about you if you are not consistent. Therefore, you should attend in-person networking events. You should also spend some allotted time on social media platforms like Facebook, and specifically use Linkedin to develop relationships. This is a prime example of consistent networking.

Send Strategic Email

At some point your communication with your connections will be via email. This email will, without a doubt, be another representation of you, so make sure it is a professional correspondence. You should write this email with the same etiquette that you have in your business email. Your follow-up email should contain a direct subject and use professional, positive language. Make sure you proofread the entire text before you send it out to make sure that your message is conveyed in an articulate manner.

Promotora Systems, Inc. can assist you with all your network management needs. Contact us today to join one of our coaching programs and optimize your networking skills.

The Best Platforms for Online Communities

The Best Platforms for Online Communities

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The correct online community for your business is paramount for your business development. Many of these platforms have multiple features including the ability to obtain feedback from users, peer support, user-generated content, and a knowledge base, plus the ability to optimize your networking and build relationships with your users. If you are unsure about which platform to use for your online community, we can help. Read on to discover the best platforms for online communities.

The Best Online Community Platforms

The Best Online Community Platforms

Slack is one of the most popular collaboration tools for business messaging. However, many use it as an online community for professionals. Slack has many great features including real-time communication, a member directory, video calling, file browser, and the ability to create channels for discussions and categorize channels into sections.

Facebook Groups is one of the best platforms to acquire new group members. On this platform, you can create specific dedicated groups for people with any common interest. Businesses can use these groups to discuss your products and services and boost brand awareness. Highlights include the ability to create learning modules to educate members about your product, member surveys, real-time chat, and reporting and analytics.

Tribe allows users to participate in the community both on the internet and on mobile browsers wonderfully. Tribe also allows you to fully customize your community to fit into your branding strategy. The key features of this platform include the ability to embed widgets to add social media components to the site, great search engine optimization (SEO) that optimizes your community to get indexed by search engines, and powerful notification tools that will keep your members engaged.

Mighty Networks is a user-friendly platform that encourages engagement from your online community. The platform allows you to create articles with a content management system (CMS) and enables you to embed images, videos, and sound files. It also gives you the ability to post questions and polls to members. Other important features include direct private messaging, personalized activity feeds, and a custom domain.

Thinkrific has a multitude of great features that make it one of the best platforms for building an online community. The platform allows users to share many varied types of content including videos, courses, articles, and much more. Other key features of Thinkrific include customizable website themes, a drag-and-drop website builder, e-commerce capabilities, and social media integrations that allow you to market and sell a wide range of products and services.

Discourse is one of the oldest and most popular online community platforms. The multitude of features on this platform include link unfurling, plug-ins, infinite scroll, powerful API, a dashboard, personal messaging, and the ability to translate content into 45 languages. The platform has three subscription plans that include standard, business, and enterprise, with costs starting at $100 a month.

Promotora Systems Inc. can help you choose the best platform for your online community to empower your success. Contact us so we can be your guide to building profitable relationships with online communities.

3 Ways Online Communities Foster Networking

3 Ways Online Communities Foster Networking

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Today, online communities are as popular as traditional business communities. In many ways, they are even better since you can grow your business significantly in less time. These communities can also help you stand out from your competition and increase your overall customer satisfaction, engagement, and brand loyalty. In this article, we will tell you three ways that online communities foster networking, build win-win relationships, and help find new clients.

How to Optimize Your Networking with Online Communities

You Can Identify Relevant Connections

Online communities create a link between quality connections and your business. This is a wonderful way to build relationships as your members will feel like they have a place where they are heard. Your users can communicate with fellow members in various ways such as posting questions and participating in discussions, where they will expect to receive a response from another member of the community. If your online community is able to create, share innovations, and function with each other, it can significantly empower your success.

It Drives Referrals Significantly

Customer advocates can help you find new clients with great lead generation strategies through referrals. If you implement online community advocacy, it nurtures those advocates and it acknowledges the value these individuals are bringing to your organization. You can recognize these brand ambassadors in many ways including badges to put the advocate’s contributions in the spotlight.

You can also give these advocates information in advance where they will be knowledgeable about your upcoming products and services coming. Then you can encourage these advocates to connect with their peers and other communities to begin discussions and help people find the best solutions to their problems. This personalized relationship strategy will build loyalty for your brand and encourage consumers to keep purchasing your products or service.

Online Communities Empower You Success with Shared Growth

You can grow your business by developing relationships with your online community. According to a recent study, branded online communities offer an incredible return on your investment with effective network management. When you have consistent and ongoing engagement with your online community, you can create meaningful interactions with your customer base.

Promotora Systems Inc. can show you why networking is important for business growth and how to make your business profitable through networking. Contact us today to get started with our network management services.

Run an Effective Community Meeting on Zoom with these Tips

Run an Effective Community Meeting on Zoom with these Tips

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Online meetings on Zoom took precedence during the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic. Many people that had rarely, if ever, used virtual meetings needed to adjust to this new way of meeting communication. On the other hand, leaders of these Zoom meetings had to make accommodations and adjustments for these novices. Zoom has many features and options that meet various business needs. If you are unsure how you can run the most-effective meeting on Zoom, we can help. Read on to learn great tips for productive Zoom meetings.

Tips for Effective Community Meetings on Zoom

Establish a Leader for Every Zoom Meeting

To keep your meeting organized, you must establish a host for your meeting. If there are many attendees, it may be a wise idea to have several co-hosts. These persons would be in charge of various meeting controls such as the ability to mute microphones of unruly attendees or even an eject button. The host(s) will also have an agenda for the meeting topics and can make sure the transitions between topics occur so all content is discussed in the allotted time.

Secure Your Zoom Meeting

You need to secure your Zoom meeting for hosts and attendees. If you enable the “join before host” option, this could lead to spam or other issues in the meeting links. Therefore to keep your Zoom meeting secure for all and turn off the “join before host” option. This way, only the account holder or someone with the account password will be able to begin the meeting.

Monitor and Control Audio

The audio element in a Zoom meeting is just as important as the video element. The most important feature you need to know about is the “mute all” button. This option only allows the hosts to be the only ones heard in the meeting. At the bottom of the participants’ dialog box is this “mute all” button. A good idea is to mute these mics as attendees first log onto the meeting, so you know their background noise cannot be heard. You can set up a Q&A session during or at the close of your meeting where participants can type in their questions, which is still much more organized than many people asking questions all at once on their respective microphones.

Control the Video

Spend some time thinking about your meeting space and how you can use it to make the best impression. Imagine what your attendees will see through the webcam behind you during your meeting. You should also preview beforehand how you will look during the meeting and adjust any harsh lighting from a window or a lamp in your meeting space.

If there are no reasonable ways to modify your meeting space, consider using a virtual background feature for your meeting. You can use basically any image you wish with this feature, so you may have some fun with it, too.

Control All Screen Sharing

The meeting host should control all screen sharing in the meeting. Occasionally, people have clicked the wrong button and have shared something accidentally that they did not intend for others to see. To prevent this, change the screen sharing setting to “host only”. This is helpful especially for the presenter, as it allows them to mute other participants.

Keep the Meeting A Little Social

Of course your Zoom meeting is about work, but don’t forget the social aspect of these meetings. As with face-to-face meetings, people still need to connect in some way. Take some time to have a little chat among the attendees to break the ice and introduce themselves. You can do this as others are joining the meeting. This helps increase long-term engagement among hosts and attendees. After introductions are made, the host can then begin the meeting in earnest and get into the business at hand.

Promotora Systems Inc. has many coaching programs that can help the small business entrepreneur with their business development. Contact us today to empower your success.

10 Ways to Generate Engagement Within Your Online Community

10 Ways to Generate Engagement Within Your Online Community

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Have you recently noticed a decrease in engagement with your online community? If you are unsure how to re-establish and increase online community engagement, we can help. You can grow your business by developing relationships with your online community through several different methods. Read on to learn about these relationship management tips and lead generation strategies. 

10 Ways to Generate Engagement with Your Online Community

Ask-Me-Anything Sessions

The ask-me-anything sessions are a forum where your users can ask any question they wish. This is the perfect opportunity to increase engagement as your users like it when they can get the information they are looking for. They can receive this information from either other community members or an expert in your industry.

You should have these AMAs as a regular event on your content calendar. You can also tailor these sessions to events happening such as the promotion of a new product. Another way is to study your community metrics, past popular discussions, frequently used search terms, and other resources.

Provide A Special Time For Industry Tips

Another way to engage your community members is to provide a specific time that provides content just for industry tips. Provide a how-to content item at a regular interval on your content calendar. For instance, in this forum, you can share technology tips for interacting with the community.

Besides providing information, you can also increase engagement from your community members. You can ask your community members to complete any action that can benefit the community as a whole. It can be something as simple as updating their profile picture, making a recommendation, or responding to a thread. Any action on the part of a community member is engagement.

Provide Seed Content

Seed content is content containing resources or questions that the community manager posts on behalf of the community. This content intrigues members to respond and creates organic interaction between community members. The best way to establish your seed content is to study your most active community members and their actions in your online community, and base the content on their actions. When your community needs an increase in engagement, you can post this content that will drive engagement from these members.

Have A Community Member Spotlight

Periodically, you should put one of your most active community members in the spotlight. These members will appreciate the chance of recognition and love the chance to learn about other members. This is one of the best ways to build relationships with your community and add value to your network. For instance, your spotlighted member may have their own product or service to promote, and this rule of reciprocity will add value to connections and increase engagement.

Re-Engage with Inactive Users

If you notice a lull with some of your community members and they are not as active as they once were, find ways to engage them in your community again. To do this, study your inactive members and try to understand why they no longer participate. Are they inactive because they don’t know how to participate in the community? Target these users with a specific call to action (CTA) such as updating their profile information or participating in a quick poll. You can also create smaller, more specific discussion groups or find ways that can make them participate in the larger discussion groups that are not intimidating to them.

A Quarterly Newsletter

A community newsletter sent to members is another great way to generate engagement with your community members. This is a highlight of all your community’s activities and enables you to recognize some key members. The recognition will likely increase your community engagement. This creates a value-added connector framework by providing members with their value and increased awareness of your brand.

Engage with the Company in A Mutually Beneficial Way

A Company Corner is an opportunity for your company’s departments to engage with community members that mutually benefits both entities. This also gives your company the chance to nurture your organizational relationships. You should feature each department in your company at least once a year, while some others, such as product development, can be highlighted several times a year.

Create A Personal Sub-Community For Members

This is a dedicated thread that may run once a week where your community can share their professional and personal updates. This is more of an informal thread that can keep engagement going through effective community moderation. You members can get to know each other on a more personal level through this space specifically through more personal discussions.

Hold A Special Promotion or Contest

A surefire way to increase community engagement is through promotions or contests. You can do this in many ways including a trivia contest where you can ask users to guess industry-related facts about your company. You can also increase engagement with referrals. This is where you ask members to refer someone to your community and both of you get entered into a promotional contest.

Establish Community Leadership Programs

Take your most active community members and designate them as community leaders. Ask these leaders to begin community discussions and offer them the opportunity to promote their own initiatives in the thread. This engagement tactic is a great way to lead to many more organic discussions as the community members interact more with each other.

Promotora Systems Inc. can assist you with all your network management needs. We can show you how to make your business profitable through relationships. Contact us today to begin the next phase of your business development.

5 Reasons Why Building an Online Community is Important for Your Brand

5 Reasons Why Building an Online Community is Important for Your Brand

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A small business entrepreneur must start an online community to build relationships and establish brand awareness. Many companies today rely on social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn to engage customers. However, if your company has a website, a technical team, and a marketing department already in place, there is no reason why you cannot create your own online community to build profitable relationships.

There are many benefits to having a thriving online community. In this article, we will tell you the reasons why building your online community is leading your brand to the next level and will empower your success.

5 Reasons Why Online Communities are Beneficial To Your Brand

It Reduces Your Support Costs and Increases Revenue

Online communities decrease your operating costs while increasing revenue. This is a win for any company. Leaders in the industry report that an online community reduces their support cost by enabling members to reach out to each other to solve any problems instead of racing out to the company’s call center for help.

Increased revenue for your business happens when community members spend an average of 19% more than people that do not engage in these communities. These community members are usually willing to pay premiums for products and services, as well as an increase in interest to purchase products.

It Increases Online Engagement and Retention

Consumers love to connect with a brand and other online community members. This builds loyalty to the brand, and therefore this loyalty increases retention. Your customers also want to know that they are being heard. A direct response from the company about their concerns is enough to increase the customer’s loyalty. Even if a community member’s suggestions are not adopted, the consumer will appreciate this acknowledgment.

If an online community influences a minimum of a company’s revenue by 16 percent, an average of 64 percent of community members will have strong engagement. If a company influences less than 15 percent of the company’s revenue, the engagement will decrease to only 26 percent. This is the primary reason why these online communities are the best forum for customer engagement and retention.

Product and Service Feedback

A community forum for your customers to provide product feedback is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness. Consumers love the fact that they can provide feedback directly to a company about their products or services. In these forums, your customers can tell you exactly what they want from your product or service. This feedback can help you tweak your product for even better sales.

Another great aspect of community forums is that they are cost-effective. When you try to obtain customer feedback through surveys, market research, or direct calling, it can be quite an expense for your company to obtain that information. You can get the same results by cultivating your online community.

Promotion of Future Products and Services

When you build a branded online community, you can establish a virtual marketplace. You already have engaged community members as well as paying customers. Your online community gives you a place to promote your new products and services.

There are also lower acquisition costs associated with an online community. These communities are easily accessible through search engines like Google. This is also another way your online community can facilitate lead generation strategies that can help you find new clients.

Better Overall Impressions For Your Brand

An online community will give your brand the best overall impression to consumers. When your customers visit your community, they will read positive feedback about your product. It also provides quality information to all members and allows the community to communicate with each other.

An online community will also increase brand loyalty. Your company and brand will benefit from the buzz your customers will generate online. Customer advocates will be your most active participants in the community and will show the most loyalty to your brand.

An online community is the best way to build relationships with customers and even find new clients. This power of relationships will enable greater loyalty to your brand and foster continuous engagement. These online communities also make it possible to sell a product or service without the usual hard-selling tactics that are usually implemented with traditional marketing techniques. This makes your brand more approachable when consumers are looking to buy.

Online communities are how to make your business profitable through relationships. They have become an integral part of creating a relationship strategy with consumers that facilitates your business development. If you cultivate your online community, it can lead to increased revenue as your online community grows.

Promotora Systems Inc. can help grow your business and create a relationship strategy with your online community. Contact us today for all your business development needs.

Building an Online Community: Where To Start

Building an Online Community: Where To Start

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One of the best ways to promote your business and brand is through an online community. Despite what you may think, starting an online community is not difficult. The social media platforms of today have made it easy to create an online community for your brand. Read on to learn how you can establish your online community through social media platforms.

How To Build An Online Community

Stakeholder Relationship Management

The first step in building your online community is to identify your key stakeholders. Just like you have a hierarchy in your business, you will need to have a dedicated team that will conduct specific tasks. Pick a trusted team member and designate them as your community manager. This individual will handle all things related to your online community and see that everything runs smoothly. The specific duties of this manager will include branding your product and/or business and identifying ways that it can be improved upon. This person will also be the one that will work closely with the community and the customers.

Other members of your team can work with your community, too. For instance, your marketing manager can create a content calendar. This content can encourage community members to be first-time buyers, convince them to buy an alternative product, or even encourage them to upgrade and purchase a product in a higher tier.

Define Your Online Community Goals

After you have assigned your team members specific duties, you need to define the purpose and goals of your community. Ask yourself: “What experience do you want to give your customers?”, and go from there. Once you have determined your purpose, you can give your community access to expert information, tips, and hacks that can make their online experience the best it can possibly be.

Select the Best Platform For Your Community

The next step is to choose the appropriate platform to host your online community. The platform you choose depends on how many members you ultimately wish to have. For example, if your community will be smaller and more intimate, you can create a chat group on an application such as WhatsApp or a direct message group on Instagram. If you desire to grow a community of more than 100,000 people, social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn are better suited to enable you to create an online community through a group. 

Create A Member Profile

You want to grow your online community with your target audience. Therefore, you need to define your prospective community members through their interests and lifestyles. Once you have defined who your target audience is, you need to ask yourself a few questions. These include:

  • What can my community give them that they didn’t have before?
  • How did the community members feel before joining?
  • How did they feel after joining?

The answers to these questions are your member persona. This will determine what content you can use to convince them to become a member of the community.

Set Up Your Community

Now that you have found your prospective online community members it is time to launch the community. You can set up the community as one large forum or you can categorize them. You can categorize the community based on your products or member interests, and decide what products are best for them.

Don’t forget your community and your brand are synonymous, and your members should feel that way, as well. Fill your profile with your logo and brand colors. Besides the brand design, you will also want to be consistent with your brand’s tone in all your content including posts, comments, and videos that you have established in your community.

Promote Your Online Community

Now that your online community is set up, you need to promote it. Just like promoting your product, you want to promote your community so people will want to join. The best ways to promote your community are:

  • Partnering with Influencers
    When you team up with a social media influencer, it exposes your community to the influencer’s community. This is a sure way to find more target members that you are looking for.
  • Invite your Contacts
    When you invite your contacts into your community, you are opening up the gates for a whole new list of prospective members. Your business and social media contacts also know many people. If you inform your contact list about your community, they will be able to spread the word about your community and brand to their contacts.
  • Referrals
    You can also promote your online community through referrals. Your referrals can be many types of a reward including gifts, discounts, or prizes. This will also influence your present community members to spread the word about your product and your community.

Promotora Systems Inc. can show you how to build profitable relationships through an online community. Contact us to enroll in one of our coaching programs that can help you find new clients and grow your business by developing relationships with an online community.

10 Ways Financial Advisors Can Capitalize on Social Media

10 Ways Financial Advisors Can Capitalize on Social Media

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Financial advisors can capitalize on social media in many ways to find new clients and empower their success. According to a recent survey, only 40% of financial advisors utilize social media to promote their business. This is in great contrast to the target audience, where an astonishing 73% of younger or millennial investors use search engines such as Google to seek out financial planners. Read on to learn how to make your business profitable through networking through social media.

10 Ways Financial Advisors Can Capitalize on Social Media

Have A Professional Photo Taken for Your Social Media Profiles

The most important element of your social media profile is your profile picture. That photo is the first impression potential clients will get of you, so make it count. Your photo should show your professional self including the way you would look and dress as if you were going to a meeting with a client.

Use Your Content To Generate Leads

Make yourself an added value connector to appeal to prospective clients. You can attract new clients by adding a helpful interactive tool or a blog with helpful information such as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your website.

Be Sure Your Content Promotes Your Values

Always make sure that any content on your website reflects your business values. Don’t forget that you need to keep those values consistent throughout your website and all social media platforms.

Define Your Brand

When you are leading with your brand on social media, keep the content focused on subjects where you have extensive knowledge. This is especially true for your product or service. Promote yourself as an expert.

This can be difficult for newcomers to do on various social media channels. Your brand, in the simplest terms, is a reflection of who you are. When defining your brand, highlight your skills and your areas of expertise, and how they will help your clients reach their financial goals. Don’t forget to have consistency with your brand on all the social media platforms where you are looking to generate leads.

Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on Social Media

To find quality connections on social media, you must optimize your networking through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is where you use appropriate keywords and phrases in your content so potential clients can find you in searches.

To do this, you must not only have your website optimized for SEO but your social media posts, as well. Many clients look for financial advisors through searches on Google. Although Google does scan many social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for search terms, it treats those platforms like typical web pages. To remedy this, you can add your SEO terms to your social media posts. It is better to do this because many platforms such as YouTube now have their own search engine for consumers. This is why it is important to put out consistent and engaging SEO content on all social media platforms, not just your company’s website.

Pay Attention To Your Industry Peers on Social Media

When you pay attention to what your peers are doing on social media, it can help you with your content posting. Watch what your competitors and peers are posting, and pay attention to what is working for them and what is not.

As a bonus, this can also help you be valuable to your network in many ways. You can also use social media for your research and potentially create strategic partnerships.

How to Develop your Business with Networking

After you have set your brand and business values in compliance with your company’s values, you can proceed to build your network. A great place to begin is LinkedIn. You can use LinkedIn to develop relationships with people who you already know. Invite these people through a more personal message to break the ice. Remind this person how you know each other in your message to connect and tell them how you can be a value-added connector for them by offering assistance through the rule of reciprocity. You can also find common ground with these quality connections by mentioning your mutual connections.

Use Your Strongest Social Media Platforms the Most

You should utilize a strong social media platform to promote your business. Many financial advisors choose to generate leads on LinkedIn. However, many are breaking into Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter to create strategic partnerships and prospects.

Engage on Social Media

Once you have established your brand on your social media platforms, be sure to engage on the platforms often. Join in on conversations with industry peers and potential customers. This is how to add value to your network where you are very generous with helpful information.

Remember the 80/20 Rule

A good rule to follow when prospecting on social media is the 80/20 rule. This is where your posted content should be 80% business and 20% personal that represents your brand.

Once you learn the ways you can use social media to capitalize your brand on social media, over time you will see how it increases your business development.

Promotora Systems Inc. can help small business entrepreneurs develop relationships to grow their business. Contact us today so we can take your financial advising business to the next level.

Why You Should Connect with Your Clients and How To Keep It Professional

Why You Should Connect with Your Clients and How To Keep It Professional

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In business, the best way to find new clients is through a great reputation in your industry through your peers. Alas, creating a relationship strategy is more challenging than it appears. After you identify relevant connections, you must then nurture them while maintaining professionalism. In this article, we will explain why you should connect with your clients and how to build win-win relationships while keeping everything professional.

How Financial Advisors Can Host A Client Appreciation Event

Why Is It Important to Connect With Clients?

As with any business, your clients are what can make or break you. When you establish a long-term relationship with your clients, it can be a remarkable lead generation strategy. When you have several satisfied customers, they will, in turn, help you find new clients with stellar recommendations for your product or service.

Tips For Developing Relationships with Your Clients

  • Check In Often
    Keep in constant contact with your clients. Make sure that your company is fulfilling their specific needs. Offer your support and/or assistance to them if they need it. If they have everything they need, continue to check in regularly.
  • Ask For Feedback
    Solicit feedback from your clients in each stage of your transaction process. Ask if they have suggestions to improve any aspect of your business including processes, procedures, and communication. Then you can incorporate their suggestions into your interactions in the future. This is a great way to develop relationships to grow your business.
  • Keep It a Two-Way Street
    One thing that will turn potential clients away is if you give them the impression that you are the only one to benefit from their business. This is where the rule of reciprocity comes in.
  • Respond In A Timely Manner
    No one wants to wait too long for a return call or answer to a specific question. If you procrastinate on returning the call, your client may decide to reach out to your competition for a solution.

Be Sure To Keep It Professional

While you need to connect with your clients, don’t forget that you are still doing business and you should make sure you do not get too personal. Below are some examples of how you can connect with your clients appropriately.

Don’t Volunteer Your Work Schedule

Your clients do not need to know about your schedule. You are not selling yourself to them if you relay to them your grueling work schedule. It is common knowledge that a small business entrepreneur must put in at least double the time and effort in their own business, as opposed to working for someone else. Plus, the last thing anyone wants to hear is complaints about doing business with you.

Don’t Make It Personal—Ever

When it comes to new clients, it is best to be friendly but not friends. This relationship strategy works best in business.

Keep Other Clients Confidential

Although you wish to build relationships with new clients, you cannot disclose any information about your present clients to do it. If you do this, you may lose this potential client if they fear that you may someday disclose their personal information to someone else.

Dress the Part of A Professional

The best way to empower your success is to dress and act like the professional that you are. Even if you are to meet with a client outside the office setting, your clothing still needs to make the best impression possible. A good rule is to make sure that your attire is not too tight or revealing, and leans more on the conservative side.

Promotora Systems Inc. has many coaching programs that can show small business entrepreneurs how to build profitable relationships with clients. Contact us today so we can help with all your business development needs.

How To Host A Client Appreciation Event As A Financial Advisor

How To Host A Client Appreciation Event As A Financial Advisor

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Building profitable relationships with your clients is the best networking strategy. A great way to thank your existing clients is to host an event to show your appreciation. In this article, we will tell you how to host this event, plus some popular event themes.

How Financial Advisors Can Host A Client Appreciation Event

Cater to Your Clients

When planning your client appreciation event, take some time to think about your invitees and their culture and demographic. For example, if your clients are basically the same age and have shared interests, you can tailor your appreciation event to them. If many clients are fans of your local sports teams, you can organize an event to attend the game with their family and friends. You may even find new clients from these additional attendees. This is how the power of relationships can work in your favor.

Great Client Appreciation Event Ideas For Financial Advisors

Besides attending a sporting event as a group, here are other popular ideas for your client appreciation event.

  • Cooking Classes
    Cooking classes have always been popular with client appreciation events. They are also fairly easy to arrange. All you need to do is pick a theme or cuisine and find a local chef or restaurant to host and supply the food. This type of interactive and intimate event is great for your best clients.
  • Golf Clinics
    Those clients who love to play golf will definitely appreciate this event. You can also open your event to current members of your golf club to find new clients.
  • Movie Nights
    You can host a great movie night for your clients. Many theaters have group packages available that include the film as well as food and beverages.
  • Private Tours
    Your clients will feel special if you arrange a private tour of a local venue. For instance, you could host your event at a museum so they can get the inside information that they normally would not get on their own trip there.
  • Community Improvement Events
    You can host an event that gets your clients involved in improving their communities. This can be anything from community beautification such as planting trees, or a beach clean-up. You can also hire a local restaurateur or food trucks to cater to everyone who is pitching in.

Make Your Event Inviting

You can build anticipation for your event in several ways. You can promote your event on social media and give your followers little teases on what to expect at your event. If you want to go the traditional route with mailed paper invitations, you can even vary that slightly. You can begin with a simple email notice to “save the date” before you send out your paper invitations. Then you can follow up with personal calls to remind them that your event is coming up.

Take Photos and Videos of the Event

Hire a professional photographer and/or videographer to cover your event. People get excited when they believe they will be on social media, and give your business some publicity in the meantime. This will also encourage them to attend future events, as well as spread the word of mouth about your business to their family and friends.

Promotora Systems Inc. can help you with our many business development services. Our fantastic coaching programs can show you how to build win-win relationships with your clients who can empower your success. Contact us today to start your planning for your next client appreciation event.