Ivan R. Misner's Blog, page 112

The Four-Letter Word That Should Be in Every Networker’s Vocabulary

“Sell” may be a four-letter word, but it’s certainly not a “bad” word . . . far from it.  “Sell” is a word that should be in absolutely every networker’s vocabulary. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run across businesspeople over the years who are fantastic networkers, but they think that just because they know how to network, they don’t need to know how to sell. They think that people will like them, and then their products or services will sell themselves. This kind of mentality is unfortunate because people who think this way may be leaving business ...

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Did You Know That Simply Making People Feel Welcome Can Grow Your Network?

I made this video with Australian networking master Paul Lomas back in 2012 and the ideas Paul shares in it are so important and timeless that I think it’s time to give this video some additional airplay. Paul’s ideas about the simple act of making people feel welcome when they arrive at networking meetings and events are remarkably powerful. He also gives a very useful tip on how to give a great response when someone asks how you are doing in order to create an opportunity for positive, genuine connections. The video emphasizes the importance of the visitor’s experience to ...

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9 Questions to Help You Start Gaining Visibility through Volunteering

One of the first steps toward networking your business is to become more visible in the community. Remember that people need to know you, like you and trust you in order to refer you. Volunteering can position you to meet key people in your community. It connects you with people who share your passion. It gives you opportunities to demonstrate your talents, skills and integrity, as well as your ability to follow up and do what you say you are going to do. It instantly expands the depth and breadth of your network. People who volunteer demonstrate their commitment to ...

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Moving from the Office to the Networking Scene

In this video, I talk to my friend Sarah Owen, referral marketing expert and Master Franchisee for the Referral Institute in the UK, about her real-life tips on making the move from the office into networking events. Professionals in business are truly professionals because they’re great at their chosen career, but they often don’t look forward to getting out of the workplace and networking.  The thing is though, professionals can actually be pretty good at networking . . . they just have to make the choice to get out of the office and go out and meet people. After watching ...

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Give Me One Good Reason I Should Do Business With You

A few months ago, I started watching some episodes of “Shark Tank” and I got hooked!  There are some serious business lessons that can be learned by viewing the show and I saw one of them last week while I was watching a rerun from a previous season (it’s sad, I’m completely hooked now and I’m checking out past episodes). There was an entrepreneur on the show by the name of Raven Thomas.  Raven started a food business called, The Painted Pretzel (pretzels covered with chocolate and other confectionaries). She had a pretty good business and, according to the panelists ...

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Facts + Stories = Powerful Messages

In this video, I talk to Ireland-based business networking expert Sandra Hart about the importance of embedding the facts about your business within the form of a story. When you’re networking or advertising for your business, the most powerful way to present your message is to use a story to ensure your message is heard.  Facts by themselves are, for the most part, simply not memorable to most people.  If you are a banker and you tell people that you specialize in offering low-interest home loans, people may remember that your bank offers loans, but whether or not they remember ...

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Two Keys to Finding the Right Networking Partners

I once received an interesting e-mail from a man who read an article I wrote about collaboration and working together.  He said, “The type of networking you talk about describes the way things should work, but in the real world most people seem to have an attitude of what’s in it for me.”  He asked, “How can I prevent wasting my time and efforts on people, only to find that they have this kind of attitude?” The short answer to his question is this—stop hanging out with the wrong kind of people and start actively seeking out the right kind ...

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What Dog Sled Teams Can Teach Us About Leadership

My wife Beth and I had the opportunity to experience a dog-sled excursion while visiting the Ice Hotel in Sweden last year. While waiting to get onto the sleds and take off across the frozen river, we observed a very interesting behavior being exhibited by the lead dogs in each dog team. Virtually all of the dogs in the pack were leaping and straining against their harnesses, barking, yipping, howling and generally making quite a ruckus. However, Beth and I noticed that the lead pair in front of each of the sled teams was quietly sitting very still, keeping a ...

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What Good Is Knowledge If You Aren’t Applying It?

Networking is simple; it’s just not easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it and do it well… and people don’t! This is not a blog piece about the step-by-step process you need to employ to network effectively. No, this is more meant to get you to stop and think about all the articles, books, blogs, podcasts and audios that you have read or listened to yet aren’t following through on in regard to what you learned. This is a post aimed at helping you to discover what you should be doing rather than focusing on what you know ...

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Jim Blasingame: ‘The Age of the Customer’

                I have been good friends with small business expert Jim Blasingame for over ten years and I can fully attest to the fact that his knowledge of what it takes to achieve success in small business is unparalleled (but don’t take my word for it, check out his bio below*).  I am excited to announce that just a few weeks ago, he released a revolutionary new book that will change the way the we think about buying and selling. This short video offers a quick overview of the premise of Jim’s newly ...

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