Will those customers come inside?

Finding new business takes time. It’s also an essential activity.

Four posts that you might find interesting address the task of finding those new clients.

How to find more new business for your professional services buisness (1) – The challenges

How to find more new business for your professional services buisness (2) – A simple solution

How to find more new business for your professional services business (3) – The long term solution

How to find more new business for your professional services business (4) – Spare a thought for the IFAs

Are you bringing in more business?

Business networking is bringing in the business.

All of my company’s new business in recent months is coming as a result of networking.

However, I’m not talking about the sort of networking one does whilst standing around with a coffee cup in one hand and business cards in the other.  I’m talking here about using social media for networking and building up your reputation on-line.

Today, every one’s on-line and so on-line business networking is becoming more and more important.

These days 23% of time spent on line is spent on social networking sites.  That means your customers, and if they have any sense, your competitors, are spending more time on the social networking sites.

I know I am.  I write weekly tips on copywriting on one of these sites: Smart Copywriting Tips For Smart Businesspeople. On another of the on-line networking sites I’m the administrator of a Blogging for Business forum.

Both of these roles allow me to demonstrate my expertise.  I play to my strengths.  I write a lot.  I blog a lot.  I teach people how to product better copy for their on-line and off-line promotions.  I teach people how to use their blogs to bring in business.

Thus, whilst I’m spending quite a bit of time on these forums, I’m getting sign ups for:

• My newsletter
• My Social Media MOTs
• My Social Media teleseminars
• My high value Social Media Coaching programme.

I’m getting the business without doing any sales pitches and without doing those endless rounds of networking meetings and costly one-to-one follow ups that can so easily fill up the diary.

Since the USP I promote about my business is that I help expert businesses to shorten the sales cycle, this all works well.

So how can you make more use of social media networks and forums?  Here are some valuable tips.

• You could be ahead of the game if you jump in and produce a social media networking strategy – before your competitors do so.
• You could allocate time and create a set of targets for your social media networking activities.
• You could cut the cost of new customer acquisition by building your reputation in this relatively easy way.

Let me know in the comments section how you’re using this type of networking to bring in more business.