Networking Gravity

by Don Harkey

Knock knock...

"Hello! My name is Don Harkey and I represent the Acme Vacuum Cleaner Company of Walla Walla, Washington. I notice that your floors are incredibly dirty and..."

SLAM!

Ouch...

Whether you sell stuff for a living or not, successful people know that you are always selling something. How do you sell your "stuff" (or YOU) without getting the door slammed in your face? Does Facebook, Twitter, and other online resources offer opportunities?

Anyone who runs a business or sells "stuff" for a living knows that this door to door salesman technique for getting clients doesn't typically work. It is a little funny that some companies think that it does. The one advantage that we all have in the field of sales and marketing is that we are all consumers. The challenge is that we often don't consciously think about why we buy the things we buy. Ever been walking in an amusement park (like Silver Dollar City) and smell all the great food cooking and just get so hungry that you HAVE to pay $5 for a hot dog. Have you ever considered that the whole place is designed that way?

How many of you own an iPod, iTouch, or an iPhone? How many of the rest of you want one? Do you know why you want one so bad? If you talk to an iPhone owner, they really love the applications that are available. Many of the best applications are free. Are Apple and its developers giving away free software or do is this a way to get you to buy more of their stuff?

Think about yourself as a consumer. My sister-in-law recently told me about her experience buying a car. She went to one dealer who pretty much had her sold. She told him that she was visiting the local Ford dealer before making a decision. "Oh, you don't want to buy a Ford!", he said. She bought the Ford before setting foot in the Ford dealership.

Consumers don't like to feel like they are being sold. 50 years ago, that door to door salesman might be your sole source of information on vacuum cleaners. You would have had to make a decision based on how credible the information presented sounded. Where else would you go?

Today, information is not something that is difficult to come by. If you type "vacuum cleaners" into Google (I don't remember paying Google for their search engine... hmmm....), you will get 7.4 million matches. In the top page, you will see websites of vacuum manufacturers with all of the information of their products. You will also see consumer sights giving ratings. You can even find vacuum cleaner forums where consumers share stories of their experiences. You could probably build your own vacuum cleaner with some more searching if you wanted.

The consumer has been greatly empowered, and this is a good thing for all of us as consumers. As a seller, you have to realize the impact of this empowerment. Where is the consumer going to purchase their product? What are they looking for? The answer is that they are looking for information that is readily available and useful and they will be much more likely to purchase from the person providing that information (or from the person recommended within the information). This is "passive" selling. You aren't selling vacuum cleaners, you are providing the consumers information so THEY can make the decision.

Alan Weiss, author of several great books on consulting, calls this concept a "marketing gravity". This is a powerful concept whether you are selling a product or marketing yourself to potential clients or even within your own organization or to a potential employer. Nobody likes "look how great I am!" or "you need to buy MY stuff!". Much more effective is "let me help you" or "here are the factors you need to consider".

A challenge is how to get in front of people in a "passive" way. Traditionally, the best way is through commercials on TV or in newspapers. However, this is often more of a shotgun approach that targets a large market with the hopes of hitting a few people within the market. Mass mailings used to be considered "passive", but the shear volume of them has changed that. The same is becoming true for mass (unsolicited) emails. What are some "passive" options?

The oldest form of "passive" marketing is simple networking. You get yourself out there and meet people. Most people who do this at the beginning jump to the end of the process and immediately try selling themselves. Imagine going into an interview and trying to immediately tell the interviewer how great you are. It doesn't work. Successful networking is about trying to help others and making high quality relationships. It's a little like dating (I think... it's been so long and I was never really good at that). If you are talking about having kids together on the first date, you might scare her away! Really, the best thing is to listen and then provide resources to the other person you meet.

Online applications give us an opportunity to provide "passive" marketing in the same way. Take a recent example from Twitter. I like to post "thoughts of the day" from time to time. I posted, "Strengthsfinder is a great book that helps you find your top strengths. Send me your Top 5 strengths!". I received a response from a teacher in California who send me her strengths and a short description of how she is using it for her classroom. I returned a quick link to an article on this blog about using strengths to motivate students in the classroom.

I didn't "sell" anything. All I did was helped out this teacher in California. In the meantime, several others on Twitter saw this conversation. I began to establish myself as an expert in this field and a potential resource. If I were to repeat that in their eyes, they would start to think of me when problems arose and it might just turn into work. I am creating a "gravity" slowly pulling potential clients in. In the meantime, it is very satisfying to help people out on a regular basis with miscellaneous issues that arise! (This is called a "Win-Win"!)

This is a longer article than normal, but it is the crux of beginning to understand the potential of these online social networks. Business is all about relationships. Maybe... just maybe... Facebook or Twitter has more potential than telling the world that you are about to water your lawn!

Try it out! Take a moment to set up a free account on Twitter (www.twitter.com) and follow me and see if I provide anything useful for you (twitter.com/donharkey).